Jari-Matti Latvala had a lucky escape last weekend on the road back to his hotel after test session for Rally Ireland. A car travelling towards him from the opposite direction lost control on a bumpy section of road and crashed into Latvala's car.
"The other car started to swerve on the bumpy road and came on my lane," Latvala told Finnish website Sportti.com. "I dodged to the left, it crashed into the side of my car and I ended up in a ditch." "If I hadn't pulled to the left, it would have been much worse."
With no major injuries and with just some minor neck and shoulder injuries, Latvala continued to test in preparation for this weekends Rally Ireland. "In rallying you need to be able to forget the crashes quickly, so I have continued testing after Saturday," Latvala added.
Chris Atkinson, who has signed for the Citroen C4 "B" team for Rally Ireland, had a successful day testing in France recently on Wet, Frozen and some dry conditions with some miles in darkness in his build up for this weekend and to get used to the Citroen C4 WRC. Chris has spent his full World Rally career in a Subaru WRC and Rally Ireland will be his first time competing in a WRC event in another Marque other than the infamous blue car.
Chris felt the test went very well commenting that "The C4 really is a fantastic car to drive and I'm thankful to the team we were able to get a full day's testing in ahead of Ireland,". "This was our first time back in a rally car since the big accident in Wales but it all went very well and we got progressively faster as the day went on which was encouraging." "I was able to work with team to find a suitable set-up for Ireland so now the focus is on training and preparing for the event to put ourselves in the best possible position to perform."
Chris has signed with Citroen for just the first event of the calendar, but hopefully with a good result in Rally Ireland, this contract could be extended to take in other events. Chris has gone well in recent times on the Monte Carlo, with good points finishes (3rd in 08 and 4th in 07) in a car that was not the most competitive and with conditions in Rally Ireland looking to be very similar to those of Monte Carlo, Chris could be one of the drivers to watch this weekend.
Also driving for Citroens B team is Sebastian Ogier who put in a spectacular showing in the first event of his career in a WRC car. In Wales, in very icy conditions and with no studs on the tyres and with drivers like Sebastian Loeb openly voicing their concerns for the hazardous icy conditions, Ogier led the field comfortably until a gear selection problem ended his lead in the rally. With seasoned drivers like Hirvonen and Atkinson having crashes in the icy conditions and Loeb not happy to be fully committed, saying he could not get a good feeling in the car, Ogier opened up an early lead. This commitment and with the French usually one of the dominating forces on Tarmac in the WRC, Ogier could be very quick next weekend.
Loeb and Sordo will be competing in the Citroen Works cars and Hirvonen (having taken lessons on how to drive on Tarmac) in the first seat in the Ford Works team, it should be very close at the top of the time table. Failing Mechanical trouble or Punctures, would anyone bet against Loeb who has not been beaten on Tarmac in over two years? But Rallying is Rallying and anything can and usually does happen. Taking the safe option and not betting against Loeb for the win, would anyone like to predict who will complete the podium places next sunday?
In other news, Kimi Raikkonen finished 13 over all in his Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000 in the Artic Lapland Rally in Finland last weekend. Kimi was delighted with the result saying that he would be interested in switching to rallying when he retires from Formula One. Kimi's contract with the Ferrari Formula 1 team ends at the end of the 2009 season and he is being replaced by two time world champion, Renaults Fernando Alonso. Kimi has said in the past that when he leaves Ferrari, he will retire from Formula One. The Artic Lapland Rally is the first round of the Finnish Rally Championship and was won by Juha Salo.
Dermot O'Doherty
RallyPortfolio.com |