Drifting

Sebastien Ogier, 2014 Rally Poland.  
Have a nice Sunday!

Need a midday pick-me-up?

No wonder navigators don't look out the window...

Whoa!

WRC Rally Australia.  Are you awake now?

(Hat tip to BM from España!)

Drones Over Portugal.

Rallies are amazing, we don't need to tell you that but they do have a fundamental problem conveying the excitement and the skill of the drivers because they are, essentially, impossible to televise.    On board cameras have helped tremendously but there is nothing like watching a rally car from above, slashing its way through a special stage.

Normally this would be done by a helicopter with all its own inherent limitations and costs.   Enter radio controlled drones, maneuverable, relatively inexpensive and able to provide shots a helicopter could never achieve.

Germany's FS-Aviation is a leader in this field with their work in VW sponsored octacoper which you have already seen in action in MonteCarlo and Sweden.

Don't miss the drone's pit stop...

Ogier scores first win for the VW Polo R WRC

Sebastien Ogier gave VW their first WRC victory for the Polo R in just their second outing.  For Sebastien Loeb instead, Rally Sweden will remain somewhat of a "bête noire" (or should it be a bête blanche?),  his only winwas  in 2004 and it was obviously one trophy  he hoped to score in this his final abbreviated season.

2013 Rally Sweden:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Ogier     VW                  3h11m41.9s
 2.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen                + 41.8s
 3.  Mads Ostberg        Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 1m24.5s
 4.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW                   + 1m30.6s
 5.  Thierry Neuville    Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 5m06.4s
 6.  Juho Hanninen       Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 5m43.1s
 7.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford          + 11m25.4s
 8.  Henning Solberg     M-Sport Ford        + 11m42.7s
 9.  Evgeny Novikov      Qatar M-Sport Ford  + 13m04.7s
10.  Yazeed Al Rahji     Yazeed Ford         + 16m27.0s

On a side note, Petter Solberg won the historic portion of the rally in a rwd Ford Escort MKII with his wife Pernilla as navigator and ...mechanic!

Drones over Monaco

Freep, you know you need one....      (Via FS Aviation )

7th Monte Carlo win for Loeb

Surprising probably no one, it was the semi retired Sebastien Loeb who took victory at the 81st edition of the Monte. It is Loeb's seventh win of Monegasque classic.   Behind Loeb, the next rising star, Sebastien Ogier and a great first result for the Volkswagen Polo R WRC on it's first outing.

The rally, characterized this year was by brutal weather and road conditions, was shortened on the final day because of safety concerns.
Aside from the massive crowds standing, in darwinian rally fan tradition, pretty much where they could be mowed down at any moment, a group of spanish fans had to be rescued after falling down an embankment stopping the race.



The final day saw some high profile retirements, Ford's Evgeny Novikov and Juho Hanninen and VW' Jari-Matti Latvala were all victims of the dreaded Col de Turini. Check out Latvala's brutal crash.





With his 7th win at the Monte Carlo Rally Loeb, who will only compete in 4 WRC events this year, further cements his position as arguably one of the best racing drivers of all times.
 (more videos after the jump)

Monte Carlo Rally, 11 minutes of Pure Sound

Two clips thanks to Axis friends Andrea and Master: The top is fresh from Special Stage 1 at the Monte where Sebastien Ogier debuted the VW Polo WRC.

Below is an older clip from practice. OK, first off, Loeb arrives to work in an Aventador...  Then, just look at how he rips on those tree lined roads, it's just breathtaking, no fancy editing and multiple takes needed!

Battle of the Sabastiens!

Apparently, if your name is Sebastien, you have a 60% chance of being faster every time but, how does it work if you pit two Sebastiens against each other?

2013 Montecarlo Rally,  the last one ever for  Sebastien Loeb, the first for the "other" Sebastien, Ogier, in the new Volkswagen Polo WRC.

Stage 1 and it's a narrow victory for Ogier,  3.7 seconds over Loeb.   Predictably, this just serves to make Loeb mad and he proceeds to give Ogier 10 seconds on Stage 2 and 19 seconds on stage 3.

Overall the four stage first leg ends with Loeb ahead of Ogier by a fairly massive 1:20 and  1:46 in front of third place Hirvonnen.

Long rally,  brutal weather, lots of snow,and as it turns out,  embarrassing timing and scoring issues for the FIA and the ACM

 

VW flying in Finland

Volkswagen Motorsport continued their tests in Finland with the Polo R WRC and Fabia S2000 with crew Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia on typical Finnish rallying roads.
You might notice any number of sideways jumps...