Monte Carlo Rally 2011 19th-22nd Jan

Pigeon

Pigeon

Pigeon

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So the Intercontinental Rally Challenge starts this week with arguably it's most important rally, the Monte Carlo. This is the centenary of the Monte Carlo rally and takes place over 13 Special Stages and 1341km on tarmac/snow. With it being a big name event and the first major event of the year the event attract the IRC regulars and many guest drivers.

Last year Mikko Hirvonen one in the Ford Fiestas S2000's debut. The IRC challenge is designed to give opportunities to younger or amateur drivers to compete on international events with big TV coverage through Eurosport. This is especially apparent on the Monte with massive coverage this week from Eurosport. With the S2000 spec cars being cheaper than the WRCs to buy and run (but not cheap) there are more top tier entries with plenty of manufacturer backing.

Big names from this year include - Petter Solberg (WRC champion 2003), Juho Hanninen (IRC champion 2010), Stephane Sarrazin (Peugeot sportscars), Guy Wilks (former British Rally champ?), Henning Solberg, PG Anderson, Chris Atkinson (all WRC regulars/former drivers), Tony Jardine (ITV F1?), Daniel Elena (Loebs Co-Driver). No Robert Kubica this year as no suitable Renault/Lotus to compete in!

Rally preview is here: http://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2011/01/2011-monte-carlo-rally-preview/

Eurosport TV schedule (ish) is here: http://www.rallybuzz.com/monte-carlo-rally-tv-2011/
Eurosports scheduling can be a bit hap hazard so you could end up with Ski Jumping instead but its all good!
 
Would love to go up to Scotland but it is a tough day out just going into Wales to follow the more local Rallies! I shall have to see about the weekend.

I love watching the Monte, the night stages and convenient timings to watch after work and then the feeling that a lot of it is just country lanes makes the commitment from the drivers exciting to watch!
 
Day 1 Juho Hanninen leads winning 2 of the 4 stages in his works Skoda Fabia. Hanninen beat Didier Auriols record time on stage 3 from 1994 in the group A Toyota! Stéphane Sarrazin won the first stage and Freddy Loix won stage 4!

Overall positions after SS4

1 Juho Hänninen (Škoda Fabia S2000) 1h11m33.4s
2 Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000) +44.5s
3 Petter Solberg (Peugeot 207 S2000) +55.3s
4 Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot 207 S2000) +55.5s
5 Guy Wilks (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1m18.7s
6 Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia S2000) +1m26.3s
7 Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1m36.2s
8 François Delecour (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1m52.4s

Hopefully Petter Solberg can keep up and stay in touch over the rest of the rally, I'm not sure is this his first rally in an S2000 car? Skoda UKs Andreas Mikkelsen is out with suspension damage and both Protons of Chris Atkinson (electrical issues) and P-G Andersson (SS2 accident) are out. Henning Solberg in the Fiesta lost time with a puncture!
 
The coverage of this completely blows WRC away.

All but 1 stage covered Live. Interviews post stage with the top 10 cars, cameras in all top 10 cars, and 7 helecopters filming!

WRC gives you an hour program each night, of which 50% is talking or random shots of cars driving into/out of service parks.
 
Skeeter said:
The coverage of this completely blows WRC away.

All but 1 stage covered Live. Interviews post stage with the top 10 cars, cameras in all top 10 cars, and 7 helecopters filming!

WRC gives you an hour program each night, of which 50% is talking or random shots of cars driving into/out of service parks.
Click to expand...

Just a pity it's Carlton bloody Kirby doing the lead comms :(.
 
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