Loeb Dominates Rally GB to take Sixth Title

Citroen driver Sebastian Loeb clinched both the Rally GB and his sixth straight World Rally Championship title last weekend.

At an event where the Frenchman had never before excelled, and under enormous pressure from title rival and BP Ford Abu Dhabi driver Mikko Hirvonen, Loeb was imperious from the very first stage.

Loeb and Finnish driver Hirvonen went into the rally separated by just one point after Loeb’s Catalunya triumph during the first weekend in October.

In short, whoever came out on top in Wales would become the 2009 World Rally Champion.

Loeb took the lead on the very first stage, the densely forested ‘Hafren 1’, opening out a 1.7 second lead over Hirvonen.

On the more open and spectator-friendly ‘Sweet Lamb 1’, both drivers were clearly right on the limit; rapidly on-and-off the throttle and slinging their cars over the jumps and through the water splashes.

Loeb extended his advantage to nearly nine seconds by the end of the third stage before Hirvonen fought back strongly from Hafren 2 onwards, cutting Loeb’s lead to just 5.3 seconds by the end of the day.

Crowd favourite Petter Solberg, along with his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills, were placed third in their Citroen Junior Team C4 on Friday night, just beating Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo.

On day two, after the first stage, it looked as though the close battle would continue, but Hirvonen inexplicably lost around 25 seconds to Loeb on just two stages – ‘Rhondda 1’ and ‘Crychan 1’.

The Ford man blamed technical problems but his team could find no issues with the car when he returned to Service Park D.

So, Loeb began the third day 30 seconds clear of Hirvonen, and Sordo now lay in third place, 24 seconds clear of Solberg who had experienced problems with his windscreen wipers – a big issue on the largely wet and windy stages.

As the spectators trudged their way towards the stages on Sunday, the excited chatter was all about Loeb, and what was turning out to be a famous victory.

Loeb was doing little more than pacing himself on the morning stages, initially allowing the gap between him and Hirvonen to reduce to 18.2 seconds, before Hirvonen hit trouble on Port Talbot 2 when he lost the car’s bonnet.

As a result Loeb comfortably coasted to the victory by more than a minute to win the championship by just one point.

Sordo came very close to taking second place off Hirvonen, finishing only a second behind him after over three hours of driving.

Britain’s Matthew Wilson finished in sixth place in his Stobart Ford; nearly five minutes clear of Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala who was slowed on the first day with hydraulic problems.

Wilson had been running in seventh at the end of day two but Sebastian Olgier rolled his Citroen Junior Team C4 into the scenery on the penultimate stage.

The young Brit, who has put in 10 solid points-scoring performances during a breakthrough season, finished seventh in the overall points standings.

He said: “We still don't know fully about next year but hopefully we will be back and will keep the momentum from this year.

The Solberg brothers, Peter and Henning, finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Conrad Rautenbach completed the points in eighth place and the other British runner Steve Perez, also in a Stobart Ford, finished in a very respectable twelfth.

Rally GB 2009, 23-25 October

Overall position after SS16:

1 Sebastian Loeb
2 Mikko Hirvonen
3 Dani Sordo
4 Petter Solberg
5 Henning Solberg
6 Matthew Wilson
7 Jarri-Matti Latvala
8 Conrad Rautenbach

Highlights:

Rally GB

One of the perks of being based in Cardiff is having top-notch sporting events on your doorstep. This evening it was the turn of Rally GB.

I've just been down to the ceremonial start and I took some pictures and videos:

Video of the World Champion

Just found this great video of Janson Button [sic] celebrating his world title in Brazil:

... and one showing where it all started:

It's Brawn Over

A big congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team on capturing both titles in Brazil today.

Button drove a very accomplished race on the Sao Paulo circuit - a champion's drive as David Coulthard put it - mixing aggressive and conservative approaches appropriately. To pass all those drivers without damaging the car is a very difficult thing to do when fighting for the championship and Button did not put a foot wrong.

There was a point when he was stuck behind Kamui Kobayashi - who perhaps should have been penalised for weaving in the breaking zone - where I thought that Button might struggle to win the championship a round early.

However, as soon as Lewis Hamilton had passed Rubens Barrichello it was clear that baring disaster, Button would become 2009 F1 World Champion before travelling to Abu Dhabi.

It was a great drive from Mark Webber and I expect that he will be a contender next year now that he has won his first and second Grands Prix.

Commiserations to Barrichello as well. At times in the second half of the season he was the in-form man and at one stage appeared to have Button in his pocket.

But his early season performances let him down and overall Jenson was the better driver - as proven by his six victories comparing to Barrichello's two.

Button becomes the first British driver to win the championship the year after a compatriot since Jackie Stewart won his first title in 1969.

After the final race at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in two weeks' time, I will be blogging on my top 10 drivers of the season.

Rally GB Preview

Mikko Hirvonen goes into next weekend’s Rally GB just 1 point clear of season-long rival Sebastien Loeb.

Last time out in Spain, Loeb led home his Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo to send the title chase to the season’s final round.

Loeb, who has won every title since 2004, needs only to finish equal on points with Hirvonen to win the title, as he would be crowned virtue of having won six rallies to Ford driver Hirvonen’s four.

Local interest comes from British privateer Steve Perez who will drive the Stobart Ford car.

The biggest story other than the title chase is the small entry for this year's event. Just 17 World Rally Cars will be present at the ceremonial start in Cardiff Bay on Thursday 22nd September.

Perhaps more disappointing is the fact that Mark Higgins, the 3 times British Rally Champion, is one of those not on the list to complete.

So who do I think is going to win the championship?

The obvious choice would be to go for Sebastien Loeb. He has won the last five titles and was the winner of this event last year. The momentum has mainly with Mikko Hirvonen in the second half of the season, but by winning Rally Catalunya on October 4th, Loeb has broken that trend.

However, Hirvonen won the Rally GB in 2007 and stormed back up to 8th place after a first day roll last year, so he clearly has the know how when it comes to the South Wales event.

What will be key however is the the role of the team-mates. Dani Sordo has had a much more accomplished season than Hirvonen's team mate Jari-Matti Latvala and has looked odds-on to take his first win at various points over the season.

He will surely figure at some stage in the rally, perhaps taking critical stage wins or even reducing the amount of points that Hirvonen gains should he place further down. I would think it unlikely that Latvala will finish ahead of Loeb.

As such, I am going to go for a Sordo win over Loeb, who as a result will take a stunning sixth consecutive championship.

Todt vs Ari

The elections for the FIA presidency between Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen will take place next Friday.

Jean Todt is the strong favourite having been endorsed by outgoing president Max Mosley and appearing to have the greater popular support.

Todt is also arguably the more well known of the two. This is partly due to the fact that Todt's senior role in Ferrari's Formula 1 team was more visible than Vatanen's exploits as a driver in the World Rally Championship and partly because Todt is engaged to actress Michelle Yeoh.

However, Vatanen has done this:

Equally, Todt ran Ferrari in a very insular and competitive manner during his tenure, in complete contrast with current figurehead Luca di Montezemelo who has taken a very clear role in uniting the Formula 1 constructors.

It is also worth noting that the FIA representatives are not just electing a president on the 23rd of October - they are electing a host of roles.

Before the election, each candidate must present a list of those individuals who will fulfil the 22 roles including Deputy President, seven vice-presidents for Sport and the President and five members of the FIA Senate.

None of these candidates can be present on both lists so when voting for the president, an FIA representative is also assenting to the appointment of all those on the list.

Unfortunately, we are not party to the decision. But we can still listen to what they have to say about themselves:

There does not appear to be any English language videos in the public domain showing an interview with Jean Todt that relates to the FIA presidency

Floodlit Dunks

The worst thing in summer was looking out of the window and seeing that it was raining. You could still play football, you could still play computer games or see your friends, you could even still risk the beach and spend the whole time in the arcades eating soggy chips. But what you definitely could not do was play basketball outside.

Playing basketball in the rain is pointless and dangerous. It slows the game down, it's more difficult to change direction and grip the ball - for someone short like me who has to rely on speed rather than height, it's a nightmare.

However, there are plenty of incarnations of the game that can be played on outdoor courts. The most prominent of which is Streetball which is played heavily in the UK - but it is no suprise that the most popular place to go is in sunny Brighton, in the summer.

Now it looks as though the NBA's second outdoor game in 2 years could become the newest type of outdoor game. Last year, the unseasonably low temperatures in the mid 60s nearly killed off the concept. (In truth that which sounds fine to me... I once played in the snow).

This year however, with temperatures in the 90s, the event was a lot more successful. The fans, players and pundits were seemingly united in their belief that this could be a more regular occurance in the NBA pre-season. .

I don't think it will ever take off here - or anywhere cold for that matter - but seeing the best players in the world perform under the stars sounds like a great evening's entertainment.

You don't win anything with kids

If I was an England player and myself and the team had already qualified for the World Cup -regardless of how strong my passion for playing internationals for my country was - I would not really want to go all the way to the Ukraine.

If I was a young, promising player desperate to get on the world cup squad next summer, I would leap at the chance to play in a game that was competitive but ultimately did not matter to the side.

It begs the question: Why did Fabio Capello not play the youngsters against the Ukraine?

England were unlucky to an extent today. They looked the better side for large periods of the game and could well have won it with Rooney's chance towards the end. Ultimately though, they lost. So with hindsight, it would have been better to field some of the youngsters.

I would hasten a bet that the real reason lies in the expected reaction of Croatia should England have done that. Let's not forget that they and the Ukrainians are embroiled in a battle for that vital second place in the group.

No Donington in 2010

It's looking increasingly unlikely that Donington will be able to hold the British F1 Grand Prix from next summer.


I have wanted Donington to succeed but I'm sure everyone was painfully aware that it would always take a superhuman effort from the management team at the circuit to be able to pull it off.

There have been questions over the suitability of the circuit and its infrastructure, criticisms over the architecture of the new developments and scepticism over the circuit's debenture schemes and ability to pay for everything.


Seeing as the infrastructure will not matter / would not have mattered until the race weekend, and construction on the circuit's new building has still not started, it would therefore be fair to argue that Donington has fallen at the first hurdle.


In the current climate, if Donington don't have an absolutely rock solid business plan, they will find investment hard to come by - as they have done already.


In truth, I didn't believe that Donington should have been awarded the contract in the first place. Silverstone's continued reluctance to spend big on bringing their facilities up to the standard of modern F1 has frustrated me, but the actual ribbon of tarmac at the Northamptonshire circuit is arguably better than Donington and the infrastructure and future potential is massively superior.


I can't help thinking that Bernie Ecclestone has been using Donington as a bargaining chip to kick start the BRDC - who effectively own Silverstone - into action. If that is the case, it is a very disappointing state of affairs for Donington.


I just hope they haven't spent massive amounts of money on the project so far as they could well be deemed unfit to hold the Grand Prix as early as Monday.

Massa Healed and Testing

This is brilliant news. Say no more.

I do hope however, for both his and Fisichella's sake, that he opts to sit out until the start of next year. I'm looking forward to his battles with new signing Alonso in 2010.

Turk's Delight

I forgot to congratulate Colin Turkington on his fantastic BTCC championship win claimed last weekend at Brands Hatch.

His qualifying and fastest lap records in often poor cars proves that he has been one of the quickest in the championship for a number of years, but he always seemed to have the bad luck. Not quite as much as Jason Plato admittedly, but it always seemed to hinder his progress.

Both Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi could well have been champions and Plato in particular has done a fantastic job in a car he had to learn about as the season progressed.

Turkington though has had a fantastic and consistent season, he has stayed of trouble and he fully deserves the championship.

Newbies

This is the first news I have read about the new teams for a while.

How long does it take to create a Formula 1 car? I don't just mean create the first rolling chassis, I mean test the car to the point where it is ready to go racing the next day.


My understanding, based on Toyota's protracted and sometimes controversial testing programme before they joined the grid in 2002, is that it takes considerably longer than all the new teams that are due to enter F1 in 2010 have had since their applications were acccepted.


As a result, I am bit confused as to why we are only just now hearing about one of the teams readying their car. I'm glad to see that it is the Manor Motorsport team as in my mind, they are the most deserving of the three new entries because of their extensive and illustrious experience in motorsport. Any team that ran Hamilton and Raikkonen to lower formulae titles surely deserves to join them on the grid.


The doubts over USF1 appear to have been silenced for a while as Autosport reported this week that they have settled on their European base and the BBC reported that the team had impressed FIA inspectors. However, I'm still concerned that there is no official news on Campos; their substandard official website does not even have a news section.


F1's future is no longer in doubt, but I can't help feeling that Prodrive should have been chosen over Campos and that the former BMW team should be in readiness to replace USF1.

Pole Position

Apologies for the awful pun as the title (you'll see what I mean) - it's been a long day.

Robert Kubica, Formula 1's first Polish driver, will join the Renault team for 2010. This brings both good and bad news.

The good news first: This has confirmed that Renault will not be pulling out of F1 at the end of the season which had begun to look almost inevitable after the Singapore-gate. After Honda pulled out at the end of last year and with BMW now following suit, there was a real danger that F1 could have gone the same way as the BTCC did at the end of the 90s when the manufacturers pulled out en masse leaving a weakened series. That now appears to have been averted and hopefully both Renault and Toyota (the other team most likely to leave) will remain commited to the series for a few more years yet.

The bad news however is that, in my opinion, Kubica will have to endure another season where the pace of his car will not match his considerable ability. I just cannot see Renault suddenly turning their car into a potential race winner over the winter. If they couldn't do it with Alonso onboard - ableit an admittedly demotivated Alonso - then I can't see Kubica faring any better.

Kubica was my driver of the year in 2008 and I felt that there had been a real injustice in BMW's decision not to continue developing the car towards the back end of that season so as to be able to concentrate on the 2009 car. A decision made even more painful in hindsight given BMW's woeful display this year. As seen with the career of Jenson Button, in F1 you are only as good as your last race and it's a shame that Kubica has not landed a seat at Ferrari, Red Bull, Brawn or Mclaren - the teams that I believe will be challenging for the honours next year.

Deserving Winner

Jenson Button will be a deserving Champion should he clinch the title this year.

There has been a lot of chatter on blogs and forums that have suggested the contrary.

I do not agree with them for three reasons.

Firstly, Jenson had an absolutely brilliant start to the year. No-one could have asked for any more than what he achieve - and there are a few drivers on the grid that would have been unable to achieve the same level of consistency, pace at timely stages of the Grands Prix and controlled aggression. His team-mate Rubens Barrichello for one.

Secondly, the way that Button has driven since that storming beginning has arguably been just as commendable. He was undoubtedly extracting the maximum performance from his car at Singapore and Hungary when Barrichello was unable to match him during the Grand Prix. Equally, his racecraft and race-pace in Japan this past Sunday was also very impressive, adding vital points to his haul.

Of course his qualifying performances have been suspect at times, but you don't get championship points for pole position.

Finally however, and perhaps most importantly, if Button doesn't deserve the championship then who does?

Of the four contenders this year, Button has made the least mistakes while under the most amount of pressure. His only DNF at Spa-Francorchamps was due to another driver.

However, Vettel made a critical error in Melbourne when he could have let Kubica past instead of trying to finish ahead in a car that was shod with failing tyres. At Monaco, he was on for a good points finish when he binned it at St. Devote.

Webber made less mistakes than Vettel, but quite often found himself just fractionally behind Vettel on pace, such as at Silverstone and in China.

Barrichello was poor at the start of the season. He could have won the championship this year had he done better earlier on, but he played bumper cars in Melbourne, and avoided the podium for the next three races while the Button was racking up the points.

Of the other drivers we would normally expect to be at the front, only Lewis Hamilton looked sufficiently motivated over the entire season - but he threw away too many points and brought the sport into disrepute in Australia. Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica at times looked despondent and uninterested, perhaps with some justification.

But Button should not be judged on the mistakes of the drivers he was competing against. If that was the case, then we would have to re-evaluate numerous champions past.

Button has been the best driver over the course of the season and he would be a deserving champion.

Petulance? You're off son.

I love football but for one thing...

The petulance of some of the players.

Given the amount of youngsters across the world who share my love of the game, I think it is about time the FA and FIFA took more responsibility for ensuring that players and managers are properly punished for setting a bad example.

In American sports such as basketball, if you question the referee - even in a polite manner - you can expect a technical foul being called against you and your team. The opposition get 2 three throws and if you are involved in another incident, you play no further part in the game. It makes you think twice about all disciplinary issues.

Why not extend this to football? If you shout at the referee or question their decision, it should be an instant yellow card. If a manager does the same, they should be banished to the crowd.

If there is a genuine grievance, then the captain should voice that in a polite manner - just like in Rugby.

That should stop all the players crowding round the referee and perhaps stop that from happening in Sunday leagues and Youth leagues. If youngsters don't learn to respect authority on the pitch, how can they learn to respect it off the pitch?

Just for good measure, why not give out yellow cards to players who shout at their team-mates as well? Mr. Ronaldo... You're off mate!

Come on Jenson!

I have normally prided myself on my lack of partisan supporting in Formula 1.

I have tended to support drivers that I like - sometimes because of their off-track personality rather than their on-track ability.

That's why I was less fussed than I perhaps should have been as a Brit when Lewis won the title last year. I supported Hamilton because of his on-track flamboyance and the way he has rejuvenated interest in Formula 1. I supported Massa because of his pleasant off-track persona.

My (perhaps bizarre) reasons for supporting drivers has meant that up into this weekend I have supported Jenson Button more because of his back story rather than because of his nationality.

When I started to seriously watch motorsport back in 1998, Jenson was one of the most promising British youngsters coming through the ranks and I have kept an eye on his career ever since. I always felt he deserved a better chance to show the ability that he so clearly has and first displayed to the world way back in 2000.

The fact that he now has that chance has perked up my interest and I gladly threw myself headlong into becoming a Jenson fan-boy for the races in Melbourne and Malaysia. After his win this weekend however, I am finding myself shift the reasons for my support.

I know there is a long to go, but wouldn't it be great to have the first back-to-back British champions since the late 1960s?

Old Things to Begin With

I am going to try and migrate some of my older articles over from the previous blog. It might be a bit difficult though and things will probably end up in the wrong order, but keep with me.

Here's some articles from my last blog:

Bernies' Medallions (original Feb 2, 2009)

The story that held the most interest for me today was that the FIA has 'revealed' that 13 Formula 1 championships since 1950 would have ended differently had Bernie's medal system been in force since the championship's inception.

Firstly, lets ignore the fact that I would argue a new system of classification should not really be assessed based on the impact it would have previous championships. Lets also ignore the fact that the biggest gainers would have been Nigel Mansell and Jim Clark which would have been nice.

What has interested me about this story is Bernie's claim that a new system would create more excitement for the viewers. He said, in an article published on crash.net, that the championship would have a much greater entertainment value if drivers were forced to fight each other tooth and nail for wins rather than tour round collecting points.

It appears that Bernie is none too happy about the fact that Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 championship. He used the example of the Brazillian Grand Prix last year, when Lewis settled into cruise and collect mode while an inspired Massa drove away from the rest of field, as proof that a radical shakeup is needed.

I believe that Bernie has missed three vital points when taking this stance:

1. The climax of this year's championship was probably the most dramatic of all time. The medal system would have confined Hamilton's incredible pass on Timo Glock at the second last corner of the race as all but academic. As such, I don't understand how fans, other than those who support Ferrari, would have been better served by a medal system.

2. A medal system would either amount to a confusing double tiered points system or a removal of all incentives for those teams not capable of fighting for victory. With Honda already gone, and Toyota and others pondering their future, this is clearly not the best plan in the current climate.

3. The consistency versus race wins formula is what makes motor racing so great. The age old dilemma, for both team and driver, of deciding between a conservative approach or balls out racing has been the cornerstone of competition since racing began. Without trying to undermine my own point about the irrelevance of past championships when assessing a new system - imagine a world without Prost vs Senna, Mansell vs Piquet, perhaps even Massa vs Hamilton. None of these fantastic duels would have been quite what they were if both drivers had always been pushing for the win in every race.

So please Bernie, stop changing the rules every season. Apart from the fact that it devalues the sport and adds to its inaccessibility for those who are new to Formula 1, they are often not brilliant ideas. Let us have our dramatic and championship deciding final lap passes - even if they are for just 5th place.

New Blog

Hello,

I've decided to restart my blog because the previous one was getting a bit messy with all the different subjects all split up. This blog will now encompass all the different sports that I am interested in.