Rallye de France: News before Day 1 - Part 2

Poles to stamp out corner cutting in France

Crews contesting Rallye de France Alsace this week will have to be on their guard after event organisers moved to prevent significant corner cutting on the world championship qualifier.

They have inserted steel poles on bends where drivers would ordinarily have taken a ‘cut’ to maximise their speed by following the optimal ‘racing’ line. The practice is commonplace, particularly on asphalt rallies, where significant time can be saved.

However, last year’s Rallye de France was spoiled by drivers pulling mud and debris onto the road through continuous corner cutting, prompting organisers to take action.

“Last year it was not equal conditions for everybody because the conditions were changing a lot,” said factory Citroen ace Sebastien Ogier. “This year it will be more level because it’s almost impossible to cut a corner if you don’t want to destroy your car. We have had to change the pace notes a lot, it’s not like natural driving because you can’t use all the road we usually do. We asked for it, now we have to adapt to it.”

Kimi Raikkonen’s navigator Kaj Lindstrom was also in favour of the move: “It’s a good thing because it means a Tarmac rally stays a Tarmac rally. With too much corner cutting it becomes a gravel rally. Now you have to stay on the road.”

Monster World Rally Team ace Ken Block was less keen and said he had spent the first pass on the recce spotting the poles. “It’s actually really frustrating spending my first pass finding all those bars. Some are obvious but a lot are hidden so you have to add a lot of ‘don’t cut’ to your pace notes. I understand organisers had to do this but we’re rally drivers and we want to take as many advantages as possible.”

Last year’s winner Sebastien Loeb, who damaged his car striking one of the poles during the recce, added: “It’s changing a bit the line and it’s a bit less natural to drive like this. We are used to drive around the poles in fast and narrow sections. It can be tricky.”

Team-mates to help title rivals in France

Jari-Matti Latvala and Sebastien Ogier will do all they can to help their respective team-mates, Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb, win Rallye de France Alsace when the action gets underway with the first of 23 stages on Friday morning.

With three rounds remaining Hirvonen trails seven-time champion Loeb by 15 points. While Latvala has only a remote chance of taking the crown, Ogier [pictured above] is still firmly in contention. However, both drivers will put their own title aspirations to one side for the good of their team-mates, starting with this week’s Strasbourg-based rally.

“Of course I try to help Mikko, that’s important,” said Ford driver Latvala. “If we want to do well we need to pressurise the Citroens. Without that Mikko can’t have so good chances in the championship. To be able to beat Citroen you need 110 per cent performance. But as we saw in Australia things can happen. It will be a tough target but by pressurising the Citroens I can help Mikko and also improve my performance on Tarmac.”

Citroen ace Ogier said: “I’m at the team’s service to help it win more titles. As you saw on the last rally my drivers’ championship is over.”

Hirvonen banking on aggressive set-up

Ford’s bid to win Rallye de France Alsace won’t be restricted to its ’mean and moody’ new colour scheme.

In fact the Blue Oval’s Fiesta RS WRCs will run a more ‘aggressive’ set-up in an effort to tame the rival Citroen team on the asphalt qualifier.

Citroen hasn’t been beaten on a sealed-surface event since Marcus Gronholm’s victory for Ford on Rallye Monte-Carlo in 2006. If Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen is to stand any chance of snatching the world title from Sebastien Loeb’s grasp then a strong result on the Strasbourg-based rally this week is essential.

“We’ve changed the car to make it stiffer and more aggressive,” said Hirvonen following a successful four-day test in France earlier this month. “It was so soft in Germany so hopefully that will help for this rally. We did a lot of things during the test on a race circuit and then on a rally stage. We’ll only find out on Friday if it works but it feels like we have gone the right way.”

Hirvonen, who won the last round in Australia to move back into contention in the title race at the wheel of his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, continued: “I have to take more risks, you can’t play safe and take the points. It’s Citroen’s home rally so it’s going to be tough to beat them and maybe here I will not risk it all but try to take as much points as possible. But if we are able to fight then definitely we have to go for it.”