WRC - Campeonato acabou!

[JRodrigues]

More Changes at Subaru

Fuji Heavy Industries project group manager Shigeo Sugaya was confirmed as Manufacturer Principal, Engineering of the Subaru World Rally Team at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday.

He takes over responsibility for the World Rally Championship team operation from Toshi Azuma, who has been given the new responsibility of team Manufacturer Marketing Principal. The appointment is effective immediately and Sugaya was already present at Obihiro in time for the start of Rally Japan. Masaru Katsurada remains the President of STi.

Another appointment is the position of Chief Designer for the team: Frenchman Christophe Chapelin returns to Prodrive after recent work at the Nissan cross country team, replacing Ed Wood who moved onto Formula One work earlier this year. Chapelin will work under SWRT Director of Engineering Steve Farrell.

In another change, Hiroshi Mori has been given responsibility in addition to his current work as Chief Engineer for Impreza road car development. Mori, who last year had some input into the Impreza WRC development work, now becomes responsible for World Rally Car design work in Japan and will work alongside Sugaya.

This latest round of changes will bring a more engineering-bias to the team.

www.wrc.com

Agora no fim da época??? [xx(] Espero que estejam é a ter em conta já a época de 2007.

[JRodrigues]

Event Bulletin
Media Bulletin – Rally Japan - Preview

25 August 2006

The Event

The FIA World Rally Championship heads to the Far East for the eleventh of the 16-round series. Rally Japan, the Subaru World Rally Team’s home event, is based in the city of Obihiro on Hokkaido, the most northerly of Japan’s islands, and takes place from 1 to 3 September. As the only round of the WRC to take place in Asia, Rally Japan usually attracts hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the continent. Last year over 200,000 people attended the three days of competition, while the ceremonial start alone drew 52,000 spectators.

Rally Japan is a highly technical event with narrow, loose gravel stages which run through dense woodland on the edge of the vast Tokachi plain that stretches inland from the Pacific Ocean. Each Leg will be a grueling test for crews with up to 10 stages per day, ranging from short, twisty 3km sprints to fast, flowing roads more than 34km long. With stages separated by long liaison sections, drivers can be on the road for over 12 hours a day.

Changeable weather is as much a feature of Rally Japan as the long days. Although Obihiro is protected by two mountain ranges, it lies in the path of Pacific weather systems which bring high winds and torrential rain to the island. This year’s rally takes place in the height of the typhoon season and it’s highly likely that heavy showers will fall each day, leaving the soft ground saturated with water. With some stages used four times, the roads will become heavily rutted as more cars drive through.

This year, the route features 27 stages, one more than in 2005. Changes for this year include a new Superspecial on the edge of the service park that will be used five times during the rally and once as the shakedown stage, while the mammoth 50km Kunneywa-Niueo stage has been broken into three shorter stages. After a ceremonial start in central Obihiro on Thursday night, the first competitive stage of the rally begins at 0803hrs on Friday 1 September. The podium finish is scheduled for 1500hrs at the Kita Aikoku service park six kilometres south of Obihiro.


Entries

The Subaru World Rally Team will enter one Impreza WRC2006 for Petter Solberg (co-driven by Phil Mills) and one car for Chris Atkinson (co-driven by Glenn Macneall). Toshi Arai (co-driven by Tony Sircombe) will also drive an Impreza WRC2006.

Petter Solberg makes his third Rally Japan appearance this year. Petter won the inaugural WRC event in 2004, however his 2005 rally came to a premature end when, with a 22secs lead, he hit a rock on the penultimate stage of the rally.

Chris Atkinson first contested the rally in 2003 when it formed part of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. The Australian has an excellent record in Japan; in 2004 he won the Super 1600 class and in 2005 he achieved his highest-ever WRC finish when he secured third position. The result was the first time an Australian had finished on a WRC podium since 1992.

Toshi Arai competes in his home rally for the fourth time this year. Like Chris, the Japanese driver has an excellent record on the rally; at the wheel of a Group N specification Subaru Impreza, he has won his class every year he’s entered.


Driver quotes

Petter Solberg: “I enjoy Rally Japan a lot, it’s always been a good rally for us, but this year I don’t want to make any predictions. Let’s start, get into a rhythm and go from there – we need a good finish. Ideally it would be on the podium – if we’re lucky and everything on the car works okay, we should be more than capable of doing this. It would be a great result for all of the fans there; it’s definitely a boost for a driver to have that kind of incredible support.”

Chris Atkinson: “Rally Japan is Subaru’s home event so it’s a big rally for the team. We did well there last year, and I enjoy the narrow, fast, tricky roads, but it could be difficult to get that result again. We’ve made some steps forward with the car, now it’s all about getting to the stage where we’re consistently on the pace. We shouldn’t underestimate the task we’ve got in front of us but, all the same, we’ll be doing our best to get a good result for the Subaru supporters.”

Toshi Arai: “I’m very excited about competing in Rally Japan with the Subaru World Rally Team. I know the team well – there are still the same faces, although some of them have moved up a level since I was last here! There’s quite a lot of pressure as it’s my home rally and my first time in a WRC car since 2001, so the goal for me will be to get a good finish. Realistically we’ll be aiming for a top five position, but if we get there and one of the top three has a problem, you never know, we could be on the podium.”


Team quotes

Subaru World Rally Team sporting director, Luis Moya: “Our record in Japan so far has been good; we’ve either won or led by a large margin. This year, however, we have to be realistic about what we can achieve. We were encouraged by the step forward in performance in Finland, particularly by Chris’ times on Sunday, but it will be a tough event. Petter has a good chance of a podium, which would be very satisfying for the army of Subaru fans we expect to be there, while Chris’s pace in Finland shows he’s capable of achieving a similar finish to his 2005 result. Of course we look forward to welcoming Toshi Arai back to the team for the first time since 2001; it will be very interesting to see him perform on his home rally in a WRC car.”

Subaru World Rally Team managing director, Richard Taylor: “Japan is Subaru's home market, and also its largest market, so the team has a massive focus on delivering a strong performance in front of the local fans, staff and business partners of Subaru who come to Hokkaido for the rally.

Despite a gap of only 96 hours between the end of Rally Finland and the dispatch of parts and cars by airfreight to Japan, the team is currently running a four-day test in Sardinia targeted at both long-term development and finding further performance improvements. We hope these findings can be applied to all three cars before they attack the first Japanese stage next Friday.

The weather forecast suggests there will be increasing rainfall throughout the rally week in the Obihiro region, which means tyre choice and tyre performance will be critical to success. The last two years have demonstrated that the Subaru Pirelli package is the best over the difficult Japanese stages and the team is confident of once again mounting a strong challenge in 2006.”


Between the rallies

No rest for team drivers Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson who went directly from Finland to Sardinia for a four-day development test. Petter drove for two days while Chris followed the test as an observer. The two will fly to Japan on Saturday 26 August to attend a press conference in Tokyo on Monday 28 August.

Since Toshi last drove for the team in 2001, he has competed in the Production Car World Championship with considerable success. At the wheel of a Subaru Impreza he finished second overall in 2003 and 2004 and won the title in 2005. This year Toshi won the Group N class of Rally Mexico and lies third in the current PCWRC standings.

www.swrt.com


Será em casa que finalmente têm uma vitória este ano?? Não me lembro da Subaru [u]não</u> ganhar uma prova numa época [xx(]

[tito23]

se no BWin desse para apostar que a Subaru não ganha um rally até ao final da epoca, eu metia lá o meu ordenado:D.

[RuiGoncalves]

Rali do Japao já rola!
Shakedown

1) 2.25.3 Grönholm Finland Ford Focus WRC
2) 2.27.1 Atkinson Australia Subaru Impreza WRC
2) 2.27.1 Hirvonen Finland Ford Focus WRC
4) 2.27.5 Loeb Frankrike Citroën Xsara WRC
5) 2.28.3 MacHale Irland Ford Focus WRC
6) 2.28.5 Solberg Norge Subaru Impreza WRC
7) 2.29.1 Sordo Spania Citroën Xsara WRC
8) 2.29.9 Companc Argentina Ford Focus WRC
9) 2.30.8 Wilson Storbritania Ford Focus WRC
10) 2.31.7 Stohl Østerrike Peugeot 307 WRC
11) 2.32.1 Arai Japan Subaru Impreza WRC

[RuiGoncalves]

citação:Originalmente colocada por tito23

se no BWin desse para apostar que a Subaru não ganha um rally até ao final da epoca, eu metia lá o meu ordenado:D.

Eu nao
A Subaru tem 1 palavra a dizer no Japao.

[JRodrigues]

citação:Originalmente colocada por Rui Gonçalves

citação:Originalmente colocada por tito23

se no BWin desse para apostar que a Subaru não ganha um rally até ao final da epoca, eu metia lá o meu ordenado:D.

Eu nao
A Subaru tem 1 palavra a dizer no Japao.

Ou não [xx(] Solberg atrasou-se quase 2 minutos PEC devido a problemas de travões, e até agora, apenas o Gronhölm e o Loeb ganharam classificativas. E o Atkinson tb já foi penalizado em 50 segundos, por isso, as coisas vão mesmo mal e encontram-se em 6º, 7º e 8º (Atkinson, Arai, Solberg) [xx(][xx(][xx(]

[tito23]

como está a classificação do rally??


aqui no trabalho não consigo consultar os sites com os tempos e posições...[8)][8)][8)]

[JRodrigues]

Final da Etapa:

1  	GRÖNHOLM  	FORD  	 01:11:01.9  	 	
2 	LOEB 	        CITROEN  01:11:12.4 	10.5
3 	HIRVONEN 	FORD 	 01:12:04.0 	01:02.1  51.6
4 	STOHL 	        PEUGEOT  01:13:22.6 	02:20.7  01:18.6
5 	SORDO 	        CITROEN  01:13:56.4 	02:54.5  33.8
6 	ATKINSON 	SUBARU 	 01:13:58.0 	02:56.1  01.6
7 	ARAI 	        SUBARU   01:14:22.4 	03:20.5  24.4
8 	SOLBERG 	SUBARU 	 01:14:36.9 	03:35.0  14.5

[JRodrigues]

Service quotes - Japan Leg 1

01 September 2006

Quotes from service A - After SS4

Petter Solberg: “We had a braking problem this morning and it now appears to be pad related which is not something that we have had before. We know what it is and we can fix it, there’s no problem there, but it is of course very disappointing not to be in the battle so early in the rally.”

Chris Atkinson: "It’s been tricky this morning with mixed conditions. We lost a bit too much time on the first two stages as we had a new setup and I couldn’t quite get the feeling for it, so was a bit cautious. We had more feeling on the last two, but still couldn’t push too hard. Not ideal, but we’re here and I’m sure we can do better this afternoon.”

Toshi Arai: “Not a bad start, but still I am learning how to drive the World Rally Car. At one point I got distracted trying to find the wiper switch so lost a bit of time there while looking for it! The stages started not so bad as the road is wide and picking up in speed. For this afternoon, the stages I think suit me and we’re not planning any changes to the car.”

Subaru World Rally Team Managing Director Richard Taylor: "We are of course very disappointed with this morning. Petter had a brake pad problem which appears to have gradually got worse and worse. This is unusual as they’re parts that we’ve used for a long time without issue, so we’ll have see what caused it. We’ve dropped a couple of minutes which is a lot of time on this event, however we have to keep positive and reflect that with 285 km still to go we hope Petter can make up some of the time and we can have all three cars achieve a reasonable result. Chris has driven very well and is sitting in fourth and Toshi Arai, is doing a great job and is up in sixth in his first time back in a World Rally Car."

[tito23]

o Loeb bem que podia desistir para o campeonato ganhar alguma emoção...

[JRodrigues]

Event Bulletin
Rally Japan - Leg one

01 September 2006

Starters
Eighty-seven cars started Leg one of Rally Japan.

Route
Leg one was made up of eight timed special stages. Crews tackled a loop of four speed tests in the countryside north-east of Obihiro in the morning and repeated them in the afternoon. The Leg finished with two circuits of a Superspecial stage built next to the service area at Kita Aikoku.

Weather
Variable conditions all day. A bright start, overcast later with some light rain showers. Stages remained damp and muddy in places. Temperatures ranged between 16°C and 22°C.

Retirements
No leading retirements

Subaru World Rally Team summary
At the end of a difficult first day of competition in Japan Chris Atkinson holds sixth place overall and leads the three car Subaru World Rally Team entry. The day started well for Subaru, with Petter Solberg jostling for a top-three position, but a brake problem on the fourth stage cost him almost two minutes and dropped him down to tenth overall. It was a similar story for Atkinson; he started well, but dropped down the order – in his case after collecting 50 seconds of penalty time for leaving service late. On his first outing in a WRC car since 2001, much of Toshi Arai’s day was spent familiarising himself with the latest Impreza model. In front of his home crowd he set consistent top-ten times and holds seventh place overnight.

SS1: 0803hrs Pawse Kamuy 1 (9.05km)
Under clear skies, crews left service from 0630hrs to drive the 84km road section to the first stage of the rally. After several days of wet weather, conditions on the 9km Pawse Kamuy section were variable, with the surface damp in some places and dry in others. The first crews through reported a lot of loose gravel and the sweeping effect meant those further down the order had a cleaner line to drive on. Marcus Gronholm, running second on the road, was the pace-setter, with his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen second. Subaru’s Petter Solberg was third.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 4:38.2

SS2: 0851hrs Rikubetsu 1 (2.73km)
The second stage of the day was a sprint around the spectator-friendly section at Rikubetsu. Based around a ski centre, and ending on a rallycross circuit, the short 2km route included a watersplash, a sequence of hairpin bends and a jump over the flying finish. The top-three drivers were the same as SS1, with Gronholm quickest, Hirvonen second and Solberg third.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 2:12.1

SS3: 0927hrs Kanna 1 (13.86km)
The high-speed stage at Kanna brought several changes to the leaderboard. Loeb went quickest and moved ahead of Hirvonen into second place overall, while a top-three time from Subaru’s Chris Atkinson moved him up from seventh to fourth. Petter Solberg reported a brake problem and finished the stage 26sec behind Loeb. He dropped to fifth place as a result. Driving as part of the Subaru World Rally Team on his home event, Japan’s Toshi Arai was seventh-fastest.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 8:06.3

SS4: 0950hrs Puray 1 (34.96km)
The longest stage of the rally, the 35km test at Puray, enabled Gronholm and Loeb to pull further ahead from the rest of the field. Gronholm was quickest, with Loeb second, 5.4sec behind, and Hirvonen third – another 24sec back. Conditions were muddy and extremely slippery in places and Hirvonen damaged the rear of his car when he slid into a concrete bridge near the start line. Petter Solberg had a frustrating stage as he struggled with his ongoing braking problem. He finished 1min 55sec behind the leaders and dropped to eleventh overall.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 19:45.3

SS5: 1423hrs Pawse Kamuy 2 (9.05km)
After a 30-minute service halt, crews repeated the morning loop of stages. Problems re-fitting a suspension component meant Chris Atkinson left the service five minutes late and collected 50sec of penalty time. On the stage, Gronholm was quickest, with Hirvonen second and Loeb and Atkinson tying third place. Petter Solberg’s braking problem was traced to the pads and with fresh components fitted he set the fifth-fastest time.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 4:32.9

SS6: 1511hrs Rikubetsu 2 (2.73km)
The second pass through the short spectator stage at Rikubetsu brought more close competition and less than five seconds separated the top ten drivers. Gronholm was quickest with Loeb second and Hirvonen third. The only change to the top ten was Petter Solberg, who set the fourth-quickest time and moved ahead of Matthew Wilson into eighth place overall.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 2:07.9

SS7: 1547hrs Kanna 2 (13.86km)
In a repeat of the morning’s run of the stage, Loeb set the quickest time and pulled back some of Gronholm’s overall lead. Mikko Hirvonen was third, Chris Atkinson fourth.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 7:52.2

SS8: 1610hrs Puray 2 (34.96km)
No problems for the lead cars on the final ‘proper’ stage of the day. Gronholm was quickest, to collect his sixth stage win of the day, while Loeb, Hirvonen and Stohl were the best of the rest. After his earlier penalty, another good stage result for Atkinson helped his recovery and he moved back up to fifth place.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 19:06.7

SS9: 1845hrs Obihiro 1 (1.30km)
Leg one finished with two circuits of the Superspecial stage constructed alongside the service area in Obihiro. In front of thousands of cheering spectators, crews tackled the floodlit stage in pairs as SS9 before switching lanes for a repeat as SS10.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 1:14.2

SS10: 1855hrs Obihiro 2 (1.30km)
On both stages Loeb was quickest with Gronholm second and Loeb’s Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo third. Sordo’s performance was enough to move him into fifth place, ahead of Chris Atkinson.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 1:15.0

Team quotes

Subaru World Rally Team managing director, Richard Taylor
"Clearly today we are very disappointed for all the home Subaru fans. We have not achieved the performance that either of us expected. We came here aiming to fight for podium positions; however the problems we have encountered have made achieving this very difficult. Both Petter and Chris have set some very competitive times when they have h clear runs, and we have been pleased with Toshi Arai’s impressive pace on his return to a World Rally Car. Now it is our job to ensure that in the remaining 220km we can help our drivers move as far up the leaderboard as possible."

Chris Atkinson
"Today’s been a challenging day in some quite difficult conditions. We had a couple of small problems which we’ll fix and then get on with it again. The aim is to keep going, have a trouble-free day tomorrow, and try hard. I’m sure we can make up some positions."

Petter Solberg
"We are trying very hard and everybody is absolutely doing their best, but we still need to do more. We had some more problems this afternoon and we know why, so we’ll look at the problem with the car and see what we can do for tomorrow. It’s certainly tough, but then it’s tough for the entire team and that’s how it is at the moment."

Toshi Arai
"The first bit of today was not so bad but the second half I lost a lot of time and then had to slow right down in the Superspecial with a clutch problem. The first stages were quite good I think, so tomorrow I will try and drive at the same speed as I am still learning the car."

News from Pirelli

Mario Isola, Pirelli Competizioni Rally Manager
"Overall the day has been a difficult one for the team. But I think we did the right tyre choice in the morning with Petter, and he was able to show a good performance on the first and second stages, but then the later mechanical problems didn't give us the chance to show our full potential. I hope the Subaru's engineers can solve the problems tonight to enable us to show some good times in the next stages."

Tomorrow's Leg
Leg two starts from the Obihiro park ferme at 0600hrs on Friday. Crews will tackle nine stages in the countryside north-east of the host city before returning for two more circuits of the spectator Superspecial stage.

1 GRÖNHOLM  	FORD  	 01:11:01.9  	 	
2 LOEB 	        CITROEN  01:11:12.4 	10.5
3 HIRVONEN 	FORD 	 01:12:04.0 	01:02.1  51.6
4 STOHL 	PEUGEOT  01:13:22.6 	02:20.7  01:18.6
5 SORDO 	CITROEN  01:13:56.4 	02:54.5  33.8
6 ATKINSON 	SUBARU 	 01:13:58.0 	02:56.1  01.6
7 ARAI 	        SUBARU   01:14:22.4 	03:20.5  24.4
8 SOLBERG 	SUBARU 	 01:14:36.9 	03:35.0  14.5

[RuiGoncalves]

citação:Originalmente colocada por tito23

o Loeb bem que podia desistir para o campeonato ganhar alguma emoção...

De pilotos já nao foge ao S.Loeb...agora de constructores está competitivo;)

Resumo do 1º dia agora na Eurosport.

[JRodrigues]

Algumas imagens deste primeiro dia que se revelou chuvoso em algumas PEC's

[JRodrigues]

[JRodrigues]

POS   1ª Et.   Piloto      Marca          Tempo         Dif.1º     Dif.Ant.
1 (+)  	 2     LOEB  	  CITROEN  	02:27:45.7  	 	
2 (-)	 1     GRÖNHOLM   FORD 	        02:28:11.3 	25.6 	   25.6
3 (=) 	 3     HIRVONEN   FORD 	        02:29:28.8 	01:43.1    01:17.5
4 (+)	 6     ATKINSON   SUBARU 	02:32:09.8 	04:24.1    02:41.0
5 (-)	 4     STOHL 	  PEUGEOT 	02:32:26.1 	04:40.4    16.3
6 (-)	 5     SORDO 	  CITROEN 	02:33:11.3 	05:25.6    45.2
7 (+)	 8     SOLBERG    SUBARU 	02:33:17.4 	05:31.7    06.1
8 (-)	 7     ARAI 	  SUBARU 	02:34:25.4 	06:39.7    01:08.0

Event Bulletin
Rally Japan - Leg two

02 September 2006

Starters
Eighty-three of the original 87 starters began Leg two of Rally Japan.

Route
The route took crews to nine gravel stages in the countryside to the north east of Obihiro. The day finished with two circuits of the Superspecial stage built next to the service area.

Weather
Dry and bright all day. Stages remained damp in places after rain before the event. Temperatures ranged between 11°C and 26°C.

Retirements
Wilson

Subaru World Rally Team summary
Chris Atkinson continues to lead the Subaru World Rally Team’s challenge after today’s second Leg of competition on Rally Japan. The 26-year-old Queenslander put in a strong performance on each of the day’s eleven stages and moved up the leaderboard from sixth to fourth place. After frustrations on Leg one, Petter Solberg’s car’s performance improved considerably and the Norwegian ended the day strongly by setting the second quickest time on the last two proper stages. Solberg holds seventh place overnight, ahead of the team’s third driver, Toshihiro Arai, who lies eighth.

SS11: 0726hrs Emina (8.18km)
Crews left the overnight parc ferme from 0600hrs on dry roads and under clear blue skies. With the exception of the Obihiro Superspecial, all of Saturday’s stages were based in the countryside between 70 and 120km north-east of the host city. Ninth-placed Matthew Wilson encountered a turbo boost problem on the 70km road section to SS11 and, unable to fix it before the start, dropped 1min 50sec to the stage winner, Marcus Gronholm. Wilson slipped down a place to tenth on the leaderboard. Also on the move was Chris Atkinson - the Australian set the fourth-fastest time and moved ahead of Dani Sordo into fifth overall. A mid-stage spin and stall for Toshi Arai cost the Japanese driver 10 seconds.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 5:42.1

SS12: 0828hrs Rikubetsu 3 (2.73km)
The third pass though the short spectator stage at Rikubetsu brought more problems for Wilson, who continued to struggle without turbo boost. The 19-year old Brit was 44 seconds slower than stage winner Gronholm and dropped another place to 11th overall. Elsewhere in the top twenty, there were no significant time gains or losses and no other position changes.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 2:07.4

SS13: 0853hrs Niueo 1 (20.75km)
The most significant mover on the Niueo stage was Chris Atkinson, who set the fourth quickest time to close in on Manfred Stohl’s fourth place overall. Over the 20km section, the Australian closed the gap to Stohl from 33sec to 9sec. At the top of the leaderboard it was still nip and tuck between Loeb and Gronholm. On this occasion Loeb was quickest and he narrowed Gronholm’s overall lead to 6.7sec.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 12:10.6

SS14: 0925hrs Sipirkakim 1 (22.43km)
A spin close to the start line for Gronholm cost him more than 20 seconds and allowed Loeb, who won the stage, to take the overall lead of the rally. Gronholm dropped to second, 17.4sec behind. Chris Atkinson’s charge continued and he set the third quickest time, despite a brief off-road excursion that cost his car its front wing and rear spoiler. Stohl was fourth though the stage and held onto fourth overall, but his advantage was down to 2.5sec. Still suffering with no turbo boost, Wilson’s miserable day continued when he pulled off the road to let Atkinson’s Subaru overtake. Unfortunately, this considerate action led to retirement from the Leg when his car became stuck in a ditch.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 12:17.0

SS15: 1035hrs Menan (16.25km)
Loeb was quickest through the stage and had his overall lead extended further when Gronholm went off the road near the start and dropped 10 seconds. Chris Atkinson was third quickest and moved ahead of Stohl into fourth place overall. Petter Solberg reported a problem under braking and finished the stage 33sec behind the leaders, dropping down to eighth overall, behind team-mate Toshi Arai.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 10:17.3

SS16: 1448hrs Rikubetsu 4 (2.73km)
After a 30-minute service halt, crews returned to the short Rikubetsu stage for a fourth and final pass. Gronholm was the quickest driver, with Hirvonen second and Solberg third. Having been run already as SS2, SS6 and SS12 the road surface was badly rutted in places and large rocks had been uncovered on the racing line. Toshi Arai was one of the drivers affected by the difficult conditions and after hitting a large rock his car bounced off the road and into some trees. Instinctively, Arai got his car straight back on the road and completed the stage but he dropped back below Solberg on the leaderboard.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 12:09.0

SS17: 1513hrs Niueo 2 (20.75km)
No problems for the leading drivers on the repeated Niueo stage. Loeb set the fastest time, with Gronholm five seconds behind and Solberg in third place. After the stage Toshi Arai learned that, unbeknown to him, his car had also collided with a WRC photographer in the incident on SS16. The man, a friend of Arai’s, needed treatment for a leg injury but sent a message to the Subaru driver telling him to continue and wishing him luck.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 11:35.9

SS18: 1545hrs Sipirkakim 2 (22.43km)
Gronholm collected his fourth stage win of the day, but less than two seconds behind him over the 20km section was Subaru’s Petter Solberg. The second-quickest time was his best stage finish of the rally so far. After losing more than two minutes during a frustrating Leg one, Solberg had climbed back up the leaderboard from tenth to seventh and had his sights on Dani Sordo’s sixth place.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 12:09.0

SS19: 1655hrs Menan Short (9.17km)
Gronholm was quickest on the final ‘proper’ stage of the Leg, but again it was Solberg who was his closest rival. Over the short Menan section the Norwegian narrowed the gap to Sordo to less than six seconds.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 5:33.5

SS20: 1845hrs Obihiro 3 (1.30km)
The final two stages of Leg two were the third and fourth passes through the Superspecial at Kita Aikoku. In front of thousands of fans, crews tackled the stage in pairs as SS20 before switching lanes and repeating the course as SS21.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 1:13.1

SS21: 1855hrs Obihiro 4 (1.30km)
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 1:12.6

Subaru World Rally Team managing director, Richard Taylor
"We’ve taken encouragement today in Chris’ strong progress up the leaderboard to fourth position and the two second-quickest times that Petter has been able to set this afternoon. Toshi Arai has also driven well and continues to get experience of the Impreza World Rally Car. Of course we are still disappointed with the technical problems that the drivers have endured on the rally and we have much work to do to ensure our cars perform consistently well and enable us to be fully competitive.”

Chris Atkinson
“It’s been a good day. We made up a couple of spots and now we’ve got a bit of a gap over Stohl, which is exactly what we wanted to do. We had a few scratches this morning when we took a few chances, but this afternoon I took it pretty easy. We took a good choice of tyres that was a pretty safe option and tomorrow we’ll judge the pace and drive accordingly.”

Petter Solberg
“We’ve been able to split Marcus and Sebastien which is very pleasing, but on the other hand it’s been quite tough as we lost so much time previously. We’ve made quite a few changes to the car and it has improved a lot and we have been able to be competitive. Tomorrow I hope to catch Sordo, but I’m not thinking too much about that as I am driving for all the fans.”

Toshi Arai
“I had a big moment today when I hit a very, very big rock and went off the road on SS16. We got back on the road and continued but after I found out that I hit a photographer, a friend of mine, Naoki Kobayashi. He was okay and even sent me a message to say good luck and continue! I hope to see him out on the stages again very soon!”

Mario Isola, Pirelli Competizioni Rally Manager
“We are happy today as the performance by Petter and Chris is good. Unfortunately much time was lost yesterday and we cannot get that all back today, however Petter was very fast, as the leading drivers were fighting, so we are happy.”

Tomorrow's Leg
The third and final Leg of Rally Japan starts from Obihiro at 0600hrs. There are six more stages to run, a total of 93 competitive kilometres, before the podium finish at 1500hrs in the service area.

www.swrt.com

[JRodrigues]

[JRodrigues]

Os japoneses são mesmo maluqinhos :D

[RuiGoncalves]

Bem, está prestes a começar a ultima especial a sério de quase 25km, que vai decidir a vitória do rali do Japao, quando Loeb e Gronholm estao separados por apenas 8.8s! Na especial anterior Gronholm ganhou 6.9s! Vai ser emocionante lol

Goo S.Loeb [8D]

[RuiGoncalves]

Ahh que grande especial! Gronholm a fazer 23s mais rápido que na 1ª passagem! No final, ganha 3.4s a Loeb, ficando o 3º a 30s e o 4º a 40s [:0]

Faltando a super-especial de apenas 1.29kms e tendo Loeb uma vantagem de 5.4s, a vitória no rali está quase segura! A ver se amanha quando acordar, n tenho nenhuma surpresa desagradável lol
Gooo S.Loeb [8D]

[tito23]

parece k já temos campeão...só falta decidir o de construtores...




Mais uma prova brilhante da Subaru [xx(]

[JRodrigues]

Pos.  Pos 2ªEt.   Piloto       Viatura       Tempo      Dif.1º           Dif Ant.
1 (=) 	 1         LOEB        CITROEN     03:22:20.4  	 	
2 (=)	 2         GRÖNHOLM    FORD 	   03:22:26.0 	05.6 	        05.6
3 (=)	 3         HIRVONEN    FORD 	   03:25:06.9 	02:46.5 	02:40.9
4 (=)	 4         ATKINSON    SUBARU 	   03:28:28.2 	06:07.8 	03:21.3
5 (=)	 5         STOHL       PEUGEOT 	   03:29:31.1 	07:10.7 	01:02.9
6 (+2)	 8         ARAI        SUBARU 	   03:31:25.5 	09:05.1 	01:54.4
<s>7 (-1)	 6         SORDO       CITROEN 	   03:31:26.7 	09:06.3 	01.2
8 (-1)	 7         SOLBERG     SUBARU 	   03:34:04.1 	11:43.7 	02:37.4</s>
7 (=) 	 7         SOLBERG     SUBARU 	   03:34:04.1 	11:43.7         02:37.4
8 (+4)	 12 	   NUTAHARA    MITSUBISHI  03:45:17.8 	22:57.4

Parabéns ao Loeb! Quem consegue este número de vitórias, é porque é um fora-de-série.[^][^][^]



Edit: Sordo foi desclassificado por problemas nos cintos de segurança.

[RuiGoncalves]

Ahh confirmou-se a 27ª vitória do Loeb como o piloto mais ganhador de sempre[^]

Sordo foi desqualificado por nao ter apertado os cintos lol
Pelo menos o titulo constructores está renhido.

[RuiGoncalves]

27 vitórias[^]



2 senhores [^]

[JRodrigues]

Alguém reconheces o piloto?? Está do lado esquerdo da foto?? E o carro?? Entraram no Safari de 1993. O resultado? O normal para o McRae: desistência :D

[Force]

Ganda Subaru...:D"McCrash" no seu melhor!

[NMiguel]

:]

Vamos la ver agora no cyprus, como corre:]

[tito23]

o rally do Chipre começa amanha não é???

[JRodrigues]

citação:Originalmente colocada por tito23

o rally do Chipre começa amanha não é???

Dia 22 começam as especiais, por isso.. Sim amanhã é o shakedown...

[Trinta87]

é desta que a subaru acerta....tem de ser!!!!!!!!!!

[JRodrigues]

citação:Originalmente colocada por Trinta87

é desta que a subaru acerta....tem de ser!!!!!!!!!!

Nem contes muito com isso.. E espera problemas nos travões novamente [xx(]