WRC '09 round 2 : Norway

Exactly a week from now WRC round 3 will be held in Cyprus on 13th to 15th of March. A contrasting event as Cyprus event is dominated by gravel particularly to the Norway event which was hampered by minus 20 to 32 Celsius degrees, a condition where drivers love to throw their cars's back end into the snow bank.

The event was held for full 3 days encompassing 360 km long distance rally. The event marked by two important occurrences. One being the introduction of new Citroen Hybrid rally car, and secondly the re-entry of Petter Solberg as a private on a 3 years old Citroen Xsara. Recall that he was the number one Subaru Team's driver prior its pulling out from WRC amidst the downturn crisis.

P Solberg quickly established himself as the fastest driver at his home town event on the very first stage. As it progressed he would adamantly strive hard into the top 6 position, despite of his under powered car. He also suffered some electrical glitch which unfortunately he had to solve himself, contrasting to last year event where he could rely to Subaru supporting mechanic. The chart above right shows his position up to SS9 where he could delight his fans at home by maintaining to the 5th position, this is a testament of his talent and strong willingness.

On the other hand Mikko has put out an all out effort to make score over his arch rival Sebastian Loeb. Loeb has started at his usual pace and slowly picking up at the second and third day as many of the stages were actually being repeated in the other direction. Mikko only knew his opponent best, he had to push hard improving the gap whilst Seb took time to accustomed himself to snow driving. The snow driving skill which the Scandinavian Mikko should be more familiar than Seb.

Mikko had steadily extended his lead from 2.6 to 6.8 seconds lead over Seb by SS6, we would see their neck to neck racing until the end. My simple chart would highlight their lead as well as other fierce competition within the top 6 position, as such that those figures are only excerpt and not depicting  all statistic. It also strengthen the fact that only these two drivers advancing way beyond the rest of the pact, and the gap keep extending until J Matlavala gave up chasing since it was accumulated to more than 30 seconds lead (SS18).

Top two switching; SS9 onwards saw Seb lead over Mikko from a mere 2.4 to 15 seconds gap. Some had speculated that Mikko had suffered from early tyre worn out, even Mikko himself express his own puzzle as to explain the widening gap.  Seb had actually accustomed himself and catapult his car further away, he already got his self composure on the second day and his C4 Citroen proved to be a tad above Ford's ability. Seb had been famous for his knack ability to maintain significant lead without compromising his risk.

Meanwhile it is worth to mention that a couple of junior drivers have also surfaced to make their presence known, amongst other ; the Norwegian 21 years old Mads Osberg and the reigning IRC championship S Ogier. Then an experienced driver PG Anderson (PGA) on a Skoda Fabia. PGA scored into 5th position from early stages, when in SS13 he hit snow bank on one corner and ruining his right hand side Skoda, resulting gearbox problem. He was out on the third stages of the second day already.

It was a pity for PGA, since it was a spectacular competition amongst him and the two Solberg brotherhood. PGA had lead over H Solberg on the first day and was into fierce battle with the younger P Solberg for the fifth spot overall. Meanwhile there was less and less straight section as the event progressed into its second day yielding less advantage to the three years old Xsara Citroen, Petter just could not match his brother's consistency. Henning found himself moving up four position on SS14 competing head to head with struggling Daniel Sordo the number two Citroen driver. Where as Petter was in another battle with Ford's junior Mathew Wilson.

Mathew nudges himself into the sixth position on SS14, we would see later on Petter could manage to tame this junior driver from SS15 onward. What an exciting battle indeed on these top six positions, as the temperature hovering into minus 20 to minus 30 degrees. More snowbanks for the driver helping them out of twisty and sharp corner. Keeping the car back end tuck in, yet alleviating their cold feet they wear special battery heated shoes.

The final leg on the third day showed more fierce battle between Mikko and Seb. Where early in the beginning of the second day Mikko had admitted of preferring to be the chasing guy, and whether he was doing so out of purely diplomacy or other less technical disadvantages.  He did put out a good fight to Seb on SS20; blistering to 200 kmh lessening the gap to mere 1.2 seconds!

Alerted by his arch rival opponent, Seb charged through to make his 49th rally wins; extending the gap to 6.4, 7.7 and on final stage 9.8 seconds. Four Fords and three Citroens with one private entry Xsara of Petter on the top seven placings.