It was a third straight win of the season for Sebastien Ogier at the Rally of Portugal, which extended his lead to a massive 54 points in the WRC driver’s standings. Though Ogier admitted that it wasn’t all that simple, and we have to agree. At the beginning of the race, Ogier feared illness would force him to miss the Rally of Portugal, but who knew a scoop of vanilla ice-cream would help him soothe the throat virus he was suffering from, and give him an adrenaline rush that would help him zoom past his opponents.
With co-driver Julien Ingrassia, the Frenchman held a slender advantage at the end of day one, which he extended with four stage wins on day two. He finally retained his grip on the lead to win top honours at the end of day three. He did have a late scare when the connector between the front and rear axles of his Volkswagen Motorsport Polo R WRC - which allows the handbrake to be used in tight hairpins - refused to close and this cost him valuable time.
But the problem got fixed in service, and though Mikko Hirvonen in his Citroen DS3 WRC was pushing hard to catch Ogier, he was unable to take advantage and shoot ahead. Hirvonen didn’t look too comfortable in the Citroen as he lost a lot of time at corners, but at the end of the rally he settled in for second place. Mikko’s teammate Dani Sordo was second and attacking for the lead on day two when he hit a tree. He managed to rip the rear right-side wheel.
It would have been a Volkswagen Motorsport 1-2 finish had the front-right driveshaft not snapped on Jari-Matti Latvala’s Polo R WRC. Citroen has suffered a blow even in the constructor’s standings as VW Motorsport now holds the edge. All eyes are on the Rally Argentina now, to see if Ogier makes it four out of four?
Weekend Thrills are back
If you thought that the Indian rally scenario was not as good as it should be in the past years, well the new season that has kicked off holds a lot of promise. Organised by the Madras Motorsports Club, this year’s Indian National Rally Championship has turned out to be one of the hottest seasons to date. To begin with, FMSCI received a record of 37 entries spread across nine varieties of cars that formed the grid of the rally. These cars were to compete in three special stages and a super special stage.
The action was to take place in two major classes — Group N, up to 2000cc and up to 1600cc. Drivers were to race in three other categories, which were not part of the INRC standings — the Indian Rally Championship (4-wheel drive, up to 2500cc, excluding Turbocharging), the Junior Indian National Rally Championship (Group N 1600cc) and introduced for the first time by FMSCI - the Indian SUV Rally Championship (up to 3000cc, including Turbocharging).
Mahindra brought three entries and marked the debut of its XUV500 in Indian Rallying. It also marked the return of multiple champion and current APRC driver for Team MRF, Gaurav Gill with his co-driver Musa Sherif. Gill missed out on the 2012 season because Team MRF only concentrated on its APRC program, but this year he was driving for Mahindra in its mammoth XUV500.
The stages were the same as in 2011, when Chennai played host. The MMRT negated any advantages to the drivers who raced on the circuit by making them run in the reverse direction for the SSS, while two other special stages were held at a different venue. The third stage was on gravel, which was around the racetrack perimeter itself.
The XUV500 really was a surprise package and with Gill behind the wheel, he steered nearly three minutes clear over Amittrajit Ghosh’s Mitsubishi Cedia. It was raw pace from Gill as he went sideways with the XUV500, and the huge car pranced around the circuit. But it was reigning INRC champion Ghosh who claimed top honours as overall winner of the AVT Premium South India Rally. Vikram Devadasen with co-driver Srikanth finished second overall, followed by Bikku Babu and co-driver George Varghese in third place. Though Gill was quicker than Ghosh across the stages, he missed out on becoming the overall champion because Mahindra is yet to homologate the XUV500 with the FMSCI and so the results are not counted towards the overall standings. Gill won in the SUV class though, ahead of Sunny Sidhu who was placed second, and Sanjay Agarwal who came in third.
Arjun Rao Aroor along with co-driver Sathish Rajagopalan was the fastest in the Group N 1600cc class ahead of Sirish Chandran, who were both driving the Polo. But at the final stage Rao’s drive shaft gave way, and even though Sathish pushed the car across to the finish, they lost time because additional time penalties were levied for changing the drive shaft. This saw Chandran top the time sheets in the Group N 1600cc, followed by Rao and Byram Godrej.
Nashik will play host for the second round in June, and it will be a tarmac rally, which will definitely test all the newcomers in this championship. It is truly amazing to see that motorsports is getting its due finally in India, not to forget a platform for the talented drivers out here. The fans were already happy when F1 came here, and with such initiatives by the FMSCI and MMRT, the day is not far when India could play host to the WRC. We wait in anticipation for that very day.
Honda Rookie displays Super Skill at MotoGP Opener
Remember the name because it is going to be around for a while. At the 2013 MotoGP opener in Qatar, a young rookie by the name of Marc Márquez showed some serious skill. The new Honda Repsol rider, Márquez is the reigning Moto2 World Champion, and in his big step up to Moto GP he was giving legendary riders like Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa a run for their money.
Meanwhile, MotoGP Champion Jorge Lorenzo had a phenomenal race and was way ahead of the pack to finish the race with a time of 42’39.802, more than 5 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi who is now back with Yamaha. Lorenzo started on pole and pulled away from everyone very quickly. Meanwhile, the Honda rookie started in sixth and had a poor start that saw him drop to eighth pace off the line. However the rookie showed come immaculate riding skills and he managed to fight his way all the way up to second position at one point. Márquez was constantly battling with 7-time champion Rossi and his own teammate Dani Pedrosa, but he managed to cross the finish line just 1 second behind Rossi in third position. It was a great show of racing from the young 20-year old. After the race, the Catalan rider admitted to having learned much while following his rivals.
Márquez said, “To tell the truth, I was pretty nervous on the grid because it was my first MotoGP race. However, I regained my concentration at the last moment. When I rode behind Dani I learnt a lot, also later on with Valentino. Fighting against him is always nice to watch, but it’s always tough at the same time. Valentino was a tough rival to overtake on the final laps. He beat us this time, but we hope to learn from him and from everyone who went faster than us.”
The next round of the Moto GP will be held in Texas, where he was the fastest at the Circuit of the Americas testing. It could be a very interesting race indeed since Rossi has also come back into his old form with his return to Yamaha. Currently, Lorenzo is on top with 25 points, Rossi has 20 points and Márquez has 16 points, while Pedrosa has 13 points.
Chaz Brings BMW Victory at Aragon
Last year WSBK rider Chaz Davies got his maiden podium at the legendary Aragon racetrack, and this year he took the top spot on the podium, not once but twice, as he finished both races in first place, making it his maiden double win. The second round of WSBK championship was as exciting as the first, and Sylvain Guintoli remains the championship leader, but Davies has shown that Guintoli will need to work hard to keep the lead.
Race 1 got off to a good start at the MotorLand Aragon circuit as the BMW MotorradGoldBet rider from Wales got a good start. The race was very tight and Eugene Laverty from Aprilia Racing Team and Tom Sykes of Kawasaki Racing Team were battling it out in the early laps. Technical problems for both Eugene and Tom however forced them to retire. Both riders were ahead of the field, but in lap 5 they pulled into the pits. Davies then took over the race and was in the lead till the very end. Coming in second place behind him was Sylvain Guintoli who overtook another BMW rider, Marco Melandri, who experienced a false neutral and had to settle for third.
Race 2 was even more interesting as Eugene Laverty was able to get his bike back in racing condition and could take part in the race. However, Eugene lost the front of his RSV4 on the opening lap of the race at Turn 2 and crashed out, straight after getting the holeshot ahead of Tom Sykes from Kawasaki. The Welshman Davies once again put on a fabulous show and was leading the race well ahead of Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli. There was no stopping him as he crossed the finish line with a time of 37’52.691, with an average speed of 160.84kmph. Coming in third behind the Aprilia rider and still current championship leader Sylvain, was Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes.
After round 2 at Aragon, it is Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli in first place of the championship standing with 85 points. Close behind is BMW rider Chaz Davies with 63 points, and in third place of the overall standings, even though he didn’t finish both races is Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty thanks to his great racing in the first round of the WSBK. The third round of the WSBK will be held at the Assen circuit in the Netherlands.
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