Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

sunnuntai 31. heinäkuuta 2011

Neste Oil Rally Finland

Once again we saw an absolutely thrilling and eventful rally in Finland! This time I couldn´t make it there to watch the event live so I followed the rally both on TV and on the internet. From the Finnish point of view the rally didn´t have a very promising start as Ford´s Mikko Hirvonen crashed to a tree on the very first stage and damaged his car costing him dearly. At the end of the day one Mikko´s position was somewhere far beyond 40 or something! The Frenchmen instead, Loeb and Ogier in their Citroens, had a perfect start to the rally...

Once again tactics played a significant role during the rally. On Thursday both Ogier and Latvala slowed down on purpose not to be the first car on the road on the following day. So it was Loeb who was cleaning the roads again on Saturday. I was so happy to notice that his road position appeared to be no disadvantage for him! Luckily the overnight rain had helped to compact the gravel surface and Loeb was able to make staggering stage times on the first loop of stages! Ogier tried his best to chase his team-mate and Ford´s Jari-Matti Latvala wasn´t far behind, either...

A few words about Hirvonen then. He was like a completely different driver on Friday! I´m not sure if his crash was caused by a technical issue or if it was his own mistake but the driving he showed on Friday was unbelievable! He set the fastest time on almost every stage! And it didn´t take very long for him to be among the top ten... Can´t help thinking if Mikko had won the rally without the unfortunate crash on Thursday...

And it was tactics again at the end of Friday. Now also played by Loeb. He took a 10-second penalty on purpose but his rivals Ogier and Latvala were aware of his act and managed to drop time making Loeb clean the roads again... which Loeb really didn´t seem too happy about! But it turned out that the conditions on Saturday morning weren´t a disadvantage for Loeb after all. I´m sure Ogier would have been able to challenge his team-mate for real without the puncture he suffered on the final day. Latvala also managed to pass Ogier thanks to his improved driving :)

The power stage in Laajavuori was shown on TV and it was epic to watch. The fast Finnish roads are difficult to drive but they suit the Finns for sure! Hirvonen snatched the fastest time on the power stage getting 3 extra points. He finally managed to finish the rally 4th which was an excellent achievement indeed. The second fastest was Latvala in his Ford leaving Ogier 3rd. So it was second win in Finland for the 7-time world champion Loeb!! He completely deserved to win, he was the first car on the road on all three days and he drove flat out all the time! Latvala did a great job, too finishing second but he still needs to improve his driving. On some stages he is terribly fast but on other stages he isn´t that consistent...

Kimi Räikkönen´s performance made me happy aswell. He is also lacking consistency in his driving but he managed to pull out some extremely good times like on the super special stage in Jokimaa where he ended up 6th fastest. The speed is there for sure... And no major mistakes for him so he was able to keep his car on the road :) Next summer I definitely want to be there in Jyväskylä again to see the hot rally action live again!!

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