In the first place I have to say I mostly really enjoyed the race which doesn’t happen very often to me. I am quite a demanding/difficult fan (which you surely realized by now) so I would say me thoroughly enjoying a race is something quite rare. And my two top moments:

• Firstly it was that awesome 3 (or even four) way fight between Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso lurking behind them. And what makes me even more happy is that Romain didn’t crash out in these fights because I half expected it - well, it’s him. Also I am happy that Pastor didn’t ruin Romain’s race as in the 1st round of this season because I like them both and well, you can imagine.
• Secondly I also like that fight between Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. Yes, Kimi didn’t pass him in it but what I enjoyed was that there can be a great fight with two sensible drivers who don’t crash into each other necessarily. Hat off to Mark for defending his line without totally closing Kimi and hat off to Kimi for being intellingent enough to realize he cannot pass (say hello to Gandalf) and thus not doing a Lewis but rather temporarily giving in.

Also looking at the results…

• Firstly I have to congratulate Britney to his first ever win (and pole-position too). I expected him to lose some positions on the start and then also later in the race but he did brilliantly. Shame about that stupid thing with Michael Schumacher and his mechanics, I believe he would be able to fight at least for a podium and I would like to see him there. He has quite some bad luck this season..
• Jenson Button has beaten Lewis Hamilton once again but Lewis is leading the championship and as a bonus (for him at least) he didn’t crash into Massa even though he had an opportunity. Strange. Very strange.
• As much as it pains me I have to say that also Sebastian Vettel who totally fucked up his qualification did quite a good job. Even though he was beaten by his teammate in the end. Also, he is moaning this season even more than Casey Stoner in his best form. I admit that I like seeing that he is not that cute and nice and everything little boy everybody thought he is. He doesn’t have a superior car this year so he is under big pressure to deliver even under this circumstances and so far he and his results look quite dubious. At least for me.
• Romain Grosjean finally finishing the race and scoring (good) points! I am so happy for him! But I guess he is even more happy because he looked even more happy than he usually does. Yes, that’s possible. On the other hand big shame for Kimi Raikkonen. I don’t exactly know why Lotus did this strategy but my wild guess is that when they saw him on such a good position they just risked everything and tried.. and it didn’t work out.
• I am also happy about Pastor Maldonado and him scoring some points even though I would be more happy if he had also beaten his teammate Bruno not-really-a-Senna. But one cannot have everything. Also good job by Bruno I must add even though I don’t like to. And also yay for Jean Eric Vergne for beating his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Shame he was not on points though.

Next round is Bahrain GP and I am not going to watch it. It’s my personal protest about the situation in the country and about the way how F1 management is looking at it. I am anyway curious about the results of this GP so I will probably read everything around etc.

tagged: f1, romain grosjean, pastor maldonado, sergio perez, fernando alonso, kimi raikkonen, mark webber, nico rosberg, michael schumacher, jenson button, lewis hamilton, sebastian vettel, casey stoner, bruno senna, jean-eric vergne, daniel ricciardo, my opinions

Here is my review of Rally de Portugal 2012 and this time, I am not even attempting to make it short - it’s not possible with rally so crazy and eventful as this one was!

Before the rally and mainly during the qualification there were huge discussion about the best starting position, mainly because of the dust issues. The organizers were even watering the stages to avoid drivers being held by dust which is very stupid idea in my opinion. Next time maybe they could use huge lamps on the night stages or hire a bunch of people who will sweep the road - rally always was about coping with the tricky condtions, or not?!

Drivers wanted watering and they got it - it was heavily raining overnight so dust was the last thing which was on their minds. The whole rally changed into a huge mudocalypse and it was basically only about a survival in those terrible conditions.

First notable casaulty of this rally was quite surprisingly Sébastien Loeb who made a mistake which was the cause of quite a big crash and especially Daniel Elena (who has a twitter account, woohooo!) can be happy he is okay because the car was pretty destroyed at his side. Rollcage damaged, game over for Seb Loeb. Speaking about Loeb, I quite like that he has no problem saying that he made a mistake unlike some other drivers who are usually victims of bad luck and almost never admit that something might have been their fault. I also have to mention the one and only Paulo Nobre here who managed to crash and retire already during qualification. I don’t know whether Paulo Nobre : Rally driver and humorist facebook fanpage is somehow connected with him but it posted this hilarious status: “Welcome to Loeb on the retirement list. But i was first ;)” - I can totally imagine crazy Paulo saying it, it isn’t so much time ago when he said he feel like some kind of Mini-Loeb (I have to resist to make some pun about Loeb’s height here) because he is running first on the road all the time.

Strangely, Sébastien Loeb has to be the happiest person in the next day of rally action. Not only he was in a warm and dry hotel instead in those ugly conditions which were happening on the stages but also Ford factory drivers did something imaginable. Instead of capitalizing on Loeb’s mistake and get it safely to the finish line they BOTH managed to crash out during the 2nd day of the rally. Little Seb’s Australia 2011 action were put in shame and look like nothing compared to this! The only good thing for them was that that the afternoon loop of stages was cancelled (according to pictures probably because of the rivers on the roads) so they didn’t lose so much time. Anyway, no wonder Christian Loriaux was furious at them - as he said: “We had it on a silver tray and we have put the tray in the bin and then buried the bin”. But to be fair, Ford drivers could say the same to him in the next days because every Fiesta RS WRC encountered some kind of smaller or bigger problem.

In the end, the results looked like this: 1st place for Mikko Hirvonen who may have not won any single stage but did a very smart rally and survived everything which was the key. Second was Mads Ostberg who gave another very strong performance and third was Evgeny, Evgeny, Evgeny Novikov who miraculously didn’t bin it in those terrible conditions. Speaking about Evgeny - he is the youngest driver ever to claim a podium finish (21 years old) and his usually desperate co-driver who definitely wasn’t desperate this time - lovely Denis Giraudet is the old person ever to stand on the podium (56 years old), nice.

But even though the rally was finished, it was not really finished (yes, this sentence make a huge sense, I know). The stewards found an unhomologated clutch on Mikko’s DS3 WRC which means he was excluded from the rally! What a turnaround and what a shame for poor Mikko who did a really clever rally and surely deserved to win. I am not into those technical car thingys but according to the official Citroen press release, he didn’t gain any advantage by it - quite an opposite because this clutch was heavier than the homologated one. In the end Ford team which had a really disastrous rally leaves Portugal as the happy team even though they were given a huge chance to get into the lead of both championships by this. But after Portugal Sébastien Loeb (who meanwhile went to Paul Richard circuit to watch his team to claim its maiden podium in an endurance race) is still leading the championship despite not scoring any single point in Portugal and Citroen is still leading the manufacteurs championship.

In the end it’s Mads Ostberg who won in Portugal and thus claimed his maiden WRC victory! Huge congratulations to him - he definitely deserved it but I guess he wanted it in “normal” way. There was no climbing to the roof of his car after the rally, no top step of the podium for him, etc, etc. Also he is first privateer since 90s probably to win a WRC event (I guess I shouldn’t count Loeb and Kronos in 2006 because they were supported by official team). Evgeny, Evgeny, Evgeny is second and Petter Solberg claimed 3rd place. Speaking about Petter, he is now 2nd in the overall standings - only 4 points behind Sébastien Loeb and 34 points in front of Jari-Matti Latvala who is only 6th overall. Surely Ford has to start to play tactics in his favour now and to be honest I am quite surprised they didn’t order Mads ostberg and Evgeny Novikov to stop and let Petter pass them. Yes, it wouldn’t be nice at all but when you want to beat Loeb and Citroen you have to do some unpopular steps.

Great 4th place goes to my favourite Middle Eastern driver (who has really a great accent) Nasser Al-Attiyah who managed to beat Martin Prokop in the very last stage. But Martin also won’t be unhappy with his 5th position which is the best position of him in WRC ever + he equalled the best ever Czech finish in WRC (Roman Kresta finished 5th in France and Spain in 2005). 6th place goes to Dennis Kuipers.

Then there is another my favourite with the great accent, an awesome Little Seb. 7th overall with his little Škoda Fabia S2000. And it could be so much better if he didn’t lose time behind a car which was blocking the road on some of the 2nd day stages. He said he lost about 1 minute or a minute and a half there and if you reduce Ogier’s by this you can see that he could finished on awesome 4th place. I cannot wait for the next year when he will sit behind a (hopefully) competitive car, he will beat them all!

Eight place goes to Thierry Neuville, another one of my favourite drivers (with the great accent!). A big shame about his technical problems in the day 2 where he had to retire otherwise he could claim his first points in a big style - by finishing on the podium. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t finish that high but when you look at his pace during day 3 and day 4 you can see that he was the only driver almost as quick as factory Ford drivers and Dani Sordo. Awesome performance by him and the is a lot more to come, definitely!

Speaking about Dani Sordo, what a shame about his day 1 problems! With the pace he showed he could really win this rally! At least he has won the power stage but I guess that is only a small consolation for him. I wish Prodrive will get some huge sponsor and Dani (and also Kris Meeke!) could do all this season (and also the next one) in which they would concentrate o the rallying only, without being worried about what will happen.

Next stop - Argentina! But before there is IRC event in Ireland..

tagged: wrc, sébastien loeb, daniel elena, paulo nobre, mikko hirvonen, mads ostberg, evgeny novikov, denis giraudet, petter solberg, jari-matti latvala, nasser al-attiyah, martin prokop, sébastien ogier, thierry neuville, dani sordo, hayden paddon, rally de portugal 2012, ford, tactics, my opinions

I can understand that he was angry but I really didn’t anything wrong or bad at what Narain (don’t make me to spell his name again) did. And even if he did (he admitted he slipped on a kerb even though I think Vettel still had more than enogh space to pass him), he apologized and was sorry about everything that happened.

Also I am having no illusions about Narain being an exceptional F1 driver but you just don’t say that about people. Especially not about people you are racing against and in public. It is also very interesting seeing that there is almost no let’s call it hate even though it is quite a bit exaggered towards Vettel, imagine the hell which would happen if Lewis “maybe it’s because I am black” Hamilton said something only half as bad as this. Btw, let’s compare how Button (to whom happened something very very similar) reacted in comparison to Vettel. I mean - I don’t like any of them but definitely big thumbs up to Jenson and a big middle finger (since he is so fond of it) to Vettel. I really wonder how his fans feel about his behaviour, from what I read/heard so far they seem to be not impressed either..

And also, big thumbs up to Narain too. I really didn’t see anything wrong on his behaviour on track and his comments about both incidents and also about the penalization which was given to him were very sensible (which unfortunately won’t make him a better driver).

tagged: f1, sebastian vettel, lewis hamilton, jenson button, my opinions

(Source: youtube.com)

• Firstly, congratulations to Fernando Alonso who once again proved that he is the best driver on the grid. As Max Biaggi summed it up on his official twitter account - “Great Alonso is stronger than Ferrari”. He is now a championship leader, who would have thought this before the start of the season? Another congratulations also have to go to Sergio Perez who I am usually underestimating and it seems that maybe I was wrong about him.
• Great job also by Kimi Raikkonen, it’s nice to see him on points once again.
• I also have to say Bruno not-really-a-Senna obviously did a good job too, do you know how hard it is for me to admit? You have no idea!
• Also I am very happy about Jean-Eric Vergne scoring his first F1 championship points AND beating his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Also I am happy about Vitaly Petrov beating his teammate Heikki Kovalainen.
• Who/what I am not happy about is to see my dear Romain Grosjean being DNF once again (and this time by his own fault as I heard). Come on Romain, you really need to finish the next race and preferably on points! The same goes for Pastor Maldonado(who I am starting to like even though he hit Romain in the last race) even though I heard this time the DNF wasn’t his fault.
• Special mention goes to Narain Karthikeyan who managed to “sent two world champions to pits and got TV time” (quote via @WorldRallyBlog) and I guess also thanks to him Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button didn’t score any points which is something I am not sad at all about, let’s be honest. Also, as a bonus Narain managed to continue after those two world champion crashes and even has beaten his equally worthless teammate Pedro de la Rosa.
• Another special mention goes to Felipe Massa whose performance was so poor that even I cannot laught at him. Joke, I can and I am laughing hard. HRT next year?

tagged: f1, fernando alonso, sergio perez, kimi raikkonen, bruno senna, jean-eric vergne, daniel ricciardo, romain grosjean, pastor maldonado, narain karthikeyan, sebastian vettel, jenson button, felipe massa, my opinions

So let’s just say I will be supporting Randy de Puniet (who is my favourite driver since his good old 250cc days), Casey Stoner because watching him riding a bike is a pure porn (plus I find his ears cute) and then always hilarious Colin Edwards and always bored looking Ben Spies and his elbowz.

On the other hand, my strong dislike for Valentino Rossi is still there so he will be probably my least favourite rider of this season (even though I hope he will be able to fight somewhere close to top because even though I dislike him I can very well admit that he is pretty good rider), also the dislike for Alvaro Bautista who looks so sweet that I have a tootache from it is still there and the fact that he has a new ugly blonde creation on his head every week doesn’t help him in my eyes either). Then there is Jorge Lorenzo who is in many ways so similar to Rossi (who he dislike) that it is even funny (also I don’t get why people consider him sexy - I mean, okay - he has a pretty good body but his face? Just no.). Also I somehow dislike Aleix Espergaro (and his brother too), always somehow uncapable Andrea Dovizioso and also Stefan Bradl (who has really disturbing nostrils, btw).

Why I always have to have so different taste than other people? Maybe I should do some of those posts like “Normal girls like Valentino Rossi, I love Casey Stoner. I am so special etc.”

tagged: motogp, randy de puniet, casey stoner, colin edwards, ben spies, valentino rossi, jorge lorenzo, aleix espergaro, andrea dovizioso, stefan bradl, my opinions

I read one very interesting comment regarding F1 today which really mademe think. I am not going to quote it because it’s too long and moreover it’s written in Slovak and something is impossible to translate directly but here it is:

Formula 1 isn’t now about having the best technology in the car and so on, thanks to FIA regulations it’s more about how to get around them or tweak them. It alsodoesn’t have such icons as for example Mika Häkkinen or Damon Hill were any more and nowadays drivers are somehow boring. It’s also because of the rules, there is no vile human greediness (which is a condemnable thing but it was making some emotions at least). Now it’s more like a peloton of stuffed plush(y) bears racing.

Also because of the security nobody is dying any more but it somehow lacks adrenaline. It sounds very nasty but in a past I admired those drivers so much more because I had a feeling that they really deserve their money and fame for what they are doing. They were something like pilots of experimental vehicles on the edge of human technical possibilities.

Now there are huge money in this sport and those stuffed plush(y) bears (aka drivers) just want an absolute safety to live through their fame and spend their money. They are more like wealthy puppets who have contracts which literally state how they have to behave and what they have to say.

I also want to say (before some offended people appear who don’t get it) that the text in italics are not my ideas. Even though it’s written in let’s say quite a cynical way and I don’t entirely agree with it, there are many truths written in this comment.

For example I am following formula 1 since the end of 90s (sometimes really closely, sometimes not so much) and I guess it seemed more intresting and exciting for me back in that time. I wonder how it is for people who are following F1 even longer. And thinking about it - probably people who follow F1 only for few years can disagree with this opinion because they never followed the sport through those older eras so they cannot compare. Who knows.

tagged: f1, my opinions

I came across many these kind of charts for this season so I decided to make one myself. And surprisingly - it was quite hard, especially to find 5 drivers I actually like enough and to pick only 5 I dislike the most. I guess I seem to be quite a negative person now, right? Well, who cares. Definitely not me.

Top 5 favourite 2012 F1 drivers:

1. Romain Grosjean - I am his fan for quite some time, it all started with seeing his photo on which he had the most awesome hair ever. He looked like some kind of “sunny” version of Sideshow Bob if you can imagine what I mean and I love him since then. Also the fact that he is French and talented (his results in GP2 proved it) helped. I hope he matured and won’t throw his 2nd F1 chance away!
2. Jean-Eric Vergne - he is charming, he is French, he looks good and he seems to be quite a bit arrogant so he definitely won’t be boring. Great combination! Also, he seems to be friend with my dear Little Seb (now we know the arrogance source), which also helps.
3. Vitaly Petrov - probably my favourite Russian. I love his accent and I love his crashes even more - the race is definitely not boring when he has his day. Also another thing which really helped me to like him - his awesome fake on twitter.
4. Heikki Kovalainen - I don’t really like him that much but I ran out of drivers I really like so.. Well, I was never his big fan but since I started to follow him on twitter I am liking him more and more and I will hope for some good results (even in that car) for him in this season. And hopefully a better drive in the next one.
5. Lewis Hamilton - Gangsta!!! Okay, I don’t even like that guy that much but he is so funny with his attemps to look like some kind of drug selling rapper from a ghetto when you can clearly see he is not that kind of a bad guy. I also like some of his comments he makes when he gets angry and of course - his crashing into Massa - that’s why I started to like him a bit in a first place.

Top 5 least favourite 2012 F1 drivers:

1. Felipe Massa - you will always be my number one in this category, dear Felipe. Okay, I admit this guy is somehow talented but obviously far from being talented enough to be in one of the stronger teams. Also I hate how anybody hates Alonso for the team orders in that team - it’s not like he didn’t behave according to them too. Also I have a strong dislike Rob Smedley and the fact everybody finds those two cute. And I am not even talking about his wife who always creeps me out because she looks like female version of Massa (really, they look almost the same!) and his kid seems to be one of the most ugly kids I have ever seen. But it may have something to do with the fact that I find high majority of little kids ugly.
2. Bruno Senna - or Bruno not-really-a-Senna. Really what kind of person changes his name to the name of his famous uncle and then moans about being compared to him? I originally liked him but I stopped after he kept saying “I am negotiating with quite a few teams and I will definitely be in F1 next year” for quite some years. Also I generally dislikes drivers who have more various photoshoots than normal racing photos and he seems to be one of those.
3. Jenson Button - another guy with more photoshoots than real racing photos. Also he seems to be so boring to me. What is the most exciting thing in his life he has ever done? Made a shampoo commercial? And another thing - I really dislike his girlfriend Jessica Michibata. For me she is the most annoying this in the paddock, far more annoying that that Nicole Scherzezezezereinger of Gangsta.
4. Sebastian Vettel - another driver I used to like far in the past but not now. Reason? His finger apart from the other things. Also, when he is celebrating he sounds like Justin Bieber. And also some of his fans are really so annoying that they just make people dislike poor Vettel. On the other hand - I have to add that I respect his driving skills greatly.
5. Daniel Ricciardo - probably. I don’t know why I dislike him that much, I don’t even know that much of things about him. But it’s maybe because I find his weird smile unsettling and hate how people go “aaaww” about him. But this 5th place was hard - there are so many adepts..

And before anybody starts sending me a hate mail - it’s just my opinion, everybody has one! It’s not that I can change it even if I really wanted to.

tagged: f1, romain grosjean, jean-eric vergne, vitaly petrov, heikki kovalainen, lewis hamilton, felipe massa, bruno senna, jenson button, sebastian vettel, daniel ricciardo, sébastien ogier, gangsta, massa slagging, vettel’s annoying finger, my opinions

Here is an attempt of a little Rally Mexico review. But knowing myself, it will probably be too long anyway so nobody will want to read it. Well, I don’t really care so here we go:

The winner is noone else than one and only Sébastien Loeb who has won in Mexico for 6th consecutive time, well done Mr Loeb! I read some comments regarding him in Mexico which were saying that he was lucky because unlike Ford guys he didn’t pick any puncture, hit any rock etc. I don’t think it’s a thing of luck - I think it is more like he is more clever/careful than others and he knows how to avoid these things. You can be lucky once, twice - but not eight years in a row (with small exceptions). For example, look at Petter Solberg (and his beard which he could really shave off - maybe Malcolm Wilson can give him some kind of order to do it!) - he has punctures all the time and don’t tell me every time it’s just his legendary bad luck. I think it’s more because of his driving style and maybe it’s the same with Jari-Matti Latvala.

Speaking about Jari-Matti, when I first read he didn’t finish that certain stage I was like: ‘surely he didn’t crash out’. Well, he did. I really couldn’t believe it, it really reminded me Poland 2009 and after seeing a photo of him (probably) crying it was really like Poland 2009 all over again. I didn’t know whether I wanted to slap him or to hug him (okay, hug him, I would never have a heard to slap that poor boy). Then I read his explanations that he was caught by surprise by Evgeny, Evgeny, Evgeny’s car which is understandable but still - how can he challenge Loeb when he already retired twice? He is a number one driver in his team now, he cannot do such things. (Now I really don’t feel like Loeb and Citroen fan. But I guess I am more like rally fan in general then.) Also, I am wondering what will happen in Ford team now: Will Jari-Matti still be a number one driver or will Petter (and his beard) be promoted to that role? Or will they be equal since now? Btw, Loeb has 66 points, Petter 47 and Jari-Matti only 26 - just for a little ilustration. And btw no. 2 - if Petter really get promoted to number one status (even if not now but later in the season) he could give Little Seb some lecture on the topic “How to be allowed to challenge for the title by driving and not by having stupid comments. And not to be kicked out of your team”.

Another guy I want to speak about - Mads Ostberg who once again did a great joby and was “the best of the rest” and he even managed to score (his premier I suppose?) point in a power stage. Great job by him; I hope and believe we will see him on the podium once again soon! Then there was also Evgeny, Evgeny, Evgeny who had a big hopes for this rally after his two 5th places in Monte Carlo and Sweden. Unfortunately the thing which everybody expected to happen sooner or later came - he crashed and crashed really spectaculary. I wonder if his poor co-driver Denis Giraudet had one of his (understandable) despair attack once again.

Then there is Monster World Rally Team with Ken Block who managed to score points (and is definitely stoked or even super-stoked because of it) so congratulations and also with Chris Atkinson who unfortunately had some problems and his hopes for a good result was ended after a brake failure. It’s a big shame because he was back in WRC after about four years and I think there wasn’t nobody who didn’t wish him some impressive result which we all know he is capable of. Also speaking about Ken and Atko - Ken did a really nice gesture when he had some problems so he lost some time and knew there is Atko behind him on the road - he waited till Atko passed him so he won’t drive in his dust and he waited quite long because Atko had a puncture in this particular stage. Hats off, Ken!

I also cannot forget to mention my favourite Arabic driver with a really great accent Nasser Al-Attiyah (who did really well and finished on impressive 6th place) and mainly my dear Thierry Neuville! Both of them managed to get their first stage wins in Mexico! I am so proud, especially of Thierry! Also speaking about Thierry (I love his accent btw, it’s so unique), I guess he should finally score some points, it’s about time, don’t you think?

Special mention goes to who else than my dear Little Seb who did really well despite being ‘bored’ behind the wheel of his little Škoda Fabia S2000 during the first day (I guess he got some big talking from Volkswagen management because since then he was happy and everything). In the end he managed to finish on the impressive 8th place and scored first points in this season. I cannot wait to see him in a Polo R WRC next year, he will surely do great things behind the wheel of this car if it will be at least a tiny little bit comfortable and I think it will be more than that! And I am looking to that also because he will be definitely able to get on the podium so he will be pronouncing that word in English once again. I really miss it in this year, ‘podium’ is my favourite word he is pronouncing with that beautiful accent he has. (Okay, every word he is pronouncing in English is probably my favourite but this one is a top favourite one!)

Special mention number two goes to the one and only Paulo Nobre who can be slow as fuck but everybody loves him anyway. (Well, maybe everybody but Thierry Neuville because he always somehow becomes stuck on the road behind him.) He named his Mini WRC ‘Little Green Pig’, everybody has to love him for it! Btw, remember me saying that I hope he won’t get his Little Green Pig stuck in a ditch for the 3rd time few days ago? Well, he probably did. At least I definitely know he retired once again. I wonder what does his co-driver think about him, maybe he is having some desperate therapy sessions with Denis Giraudet, who knows.

Last thing I want to talk about is that infamous rock throwing at the cars (especially on Thierry’s car) by some spectators (I am not using the term ‘fans’ on purpose). How can somebody be so stupid? This thing is fucking dangerous - I cannot imagine how would I react if some rock suddenly landed on your windscreen and cracked it. And to do this to some driver who is going flat out on a difficult stage? It’s ridiculous and my brain just don’t get it. Same with people deliberately putting big stones to the middle of the road, WTF is this? To set Petter’s beard and Ott’s stare after them is not enough..

tagged: wrc, sébastien loeb, petter solberg, jari-matti latvala, evgeny novikov, denis giraudet, mads ostberg, ken block, chris atkinson, nasser al-attiyah, thierry neuville, sébastien ogier, paulo nobre, petter’s beard, malcolm wilson, the accent, tactics, rally mexico 2012, my opinions

And I don’t really know why do I care because saying that Jaime Alguersuari is not my favourite driver is an understatement. I guess I care because I just don’t get it. Anyway, thumbs up to him for not trying to secure a seat in HRT - at least he has some sense of self value or how to say it.

* I know it because I fucking googled it.

tagged: f1, jaime alguersuari, my opinions

..and even though I have many things to do which means I probably won’t be able to watch races live I am still pretty much excited about it.

This year I will be cheering for my favourite rider ever Sylvain Guintoli who is in danger of not being my favourite driver ever any more because he seems to have weird things grown on his face lately. At the end of last year he had was in a terrific form so I hope he will continue with it and if he will, his first victory will surely come quickly. Then I will be also supporting Kawasaki boys - Joan Lascorz and mainly Tom Sykes and his awesome chin. Also, there is another one of my favourite riders John “Hopper” Hopkins but he successfully managed to injure himself once again even before the season actually started. Oh and I will be also supporting Jonathan Rea and Evgene Laverty but only a bit because I like riders mentioned before more. :-)

Who I definitely won’t be supporting is Michel Fabrizio who is as nice as die-hard fans of Valentino Rossi to Casey Stoner (at least on the internet!) are, then also Marco Melandri because I just don‘t like him and same stands for Nicolo Canepa and a bit also for Leon Halsam.

Then there are riders about which results I am really curious. Of course, I am in fact curious about everyone but I am mainly wondering if Max Biaggi will be able to fight for the title this year, also if Carlos Checa will be able to defend his title. Also there is Ayrton Badovini who was pretty impressive last year and I cannot wait to see if he will continue in such fashion. And I am wondering also how will Hiroshi Aoyama do in WSBK and I have to say I expect nothing great from him. But who knows - maybe he will surprise me!

tagged: wsbk, sylvain guintoli, joan lascorz, tom sykes, john hopkins, jonathan rea, evgene laverty, michel fabrizio, marco melandri, nicolo canepa, leon haslam, max biaggi, carlos checa, ayrton badovini, hiroshi aoyama, valentino rossi, casey stoner, my opinions

Rallye Monte Carlo is finished and it was a really great event as expected. I am still sad that I wasn’t able to go there because of my exams. Hoping for the next year though!

The winner is noone else than Sébastien Loeb who eventually won with almost 3 minutes lead. Really, if he will continue to be flawless like this they can give him his trophy for his 9th title already now. Second place went to Dani Sordo who is continuing to impress with his Mini. I know how good he is on tarmac so I expected him to be quite up in the rankings, possibly even on the podium - but to do it in such a fasion.. Congratulations Dani, now you just need Loeb to crash out once so you can claim your first WRC victory. ;-) Speaking about Dani and Mini, the unofficial Most Stupid Quote of the Rally Award goes to David Richards who were speaking about “how important it is for him to keep his drivers happy”. Drivers! Yes, he said drivers as in plural. I am willing to bet that Kris Meeke threw an Ogier-sque tantrum at home when he heard that.

Third place goes to Petter Solberg but noone cares about it because of his ugly BEARD. Really Petter, shave that thing off, everybody knows it its fault that your teammate Jari-Matti Latvala has crashed. It also injured poor Julien Ingrassia! Speaking about Petter, 3rd place is certainly a pretty good result for him but I am surprised he wasn’t able to keep Sordo’s pace during the rally. Okay, I know that in the 4th day he was the fastest one but I doubt Dani was really pushing. He was probably just driving fast enough to maintain some kind of a gap. And speaking about Petter - another problem with speeding? Really? It’s really getting ridiculous, I bet that if he got some kind of serious ban for it he would blame it on “bad luck” as usual. Everything is just a “bad luck” for him. Don’t get me wrong, I like him (when he doesn’t have that frightening THING on his face) but sometimes he is just not able to admit that things can be his fault. Let’s get back to Jari-Matti Latvala. Rallye Monte Carlo is probably the most important event to finish because there is no superrally and what does he do? He bins it! D’oh, Jari-Matti, how can you fight for the title like that?

Fourth place goes to Mikko Hirvonen who was quite boring even though he showed he can be fast during the 3rd day. I hope he got used to the car, I doubt he will get bigger chance to win than in the next rally in Sweden. Surprisingly, Evgeny Evgeny Evgeny Novikov didn’t crash out in this rally and also surprisingly - he finished 5th what is his best result ever! Congratulations, I am pretty impressed by him and I bet poor Denis Giraudet was for from being usually desperate this time! The legend that is Francois Delecour finished on impressive 6th place and showed that despite being a bit older he still have it and has no problems to beat majority of today’s drivers. Also hat off to him for letting his co-driver Dominique Savignoni for who this was the last rally to drive during the power stage. What a gesture from a great, great man.

7th place goes to Pierre Campana who did very well according to me. I know some people were angry at him as he is somehow indirectly the reason why Kris Meeke wasn’t driving at Monte but let’s face it - he can be a pay driver but he is a damn good pay driver in my opinion! I firstly noticed him few years back in IRC where he did some pretty good results so he definitely has a talent. Also the fact that he has beaten hugely talented Ott Tänak (and his deathly stare) proves it. For me Ott was quite a disappointment (I hope he won’t be reading this because he will probably kill me by his stare) but on the other hand, he was ordered just to go safely to finish so he couldn’t show the real speed he is capable of.

Another surprising result is Kevin Abbring being the fastest guy with S2000 car. Okay, I know little Seb crashed out and PG Andersson with Proton has a biggest misfortune ever when his car caught fire just two stages to go and he and Proton were stripped off the biggest success ever for them which were they just about to reach. But still, I expected at least Craig Breen to be quicker than him and speaking about Breen, I know he has won the SWRC class (let’s rather not talk about that embarassing number of SWRC crews in this rally and in the whole championship) but I expected him to be faster.

Then there is ‘Go Fast’ team which did everything else but went fast. I mean, nobody really expected Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg to be very fast or to be fast at all but this was just embarrassing. I also have to mention Paulo Nobre comparing to who Matt Wilson looks as fast as Loeb. He is just awesome and I don’t really care about him being slow because when you hear his interviews with World Rally Radio you can feel so much passion about rallying from him than you just have to love him and cheer him on!

I also cannot forget to mention Bryan Bouffier who had a nightmare day first day but then he was incredibly quick in his little Peugeot 207 S2000! Really shame about that first day, otherwise I can imagine him finishing definitely somewhere at the end of top 10! Last mention goes to my two favourite drivers who both crashed out during the first day of Rallye Monte Carlo. Yes, I am speaking about Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville. I have to say I expected little Seb to crash at some point because he was just too fast with his little Škoda Fabia S2000. And it is only natural he crashed into a tree, he obviously loves crashing into them. I also feel sad for poor Julien being injured but thankfully it is nothing serious and he will be okay soon. He was even making fun of the whole thing on his official facebook fanpage, gotta love him! And Thierry! He was so unlucky! I mean - he had a slowest crash ever and he hit that wall on the little bridge so unluckily that he knocked his wheel off.

So that’s all. My first intention was to make this little review really little. But then I started wrtting and couldn’t stop myslelf. Congratulations if you made it till here - if not, I cannot blame you. Btw, did you know you can use only 20 tags per one post? Yeah, it sucks.

tagged: wrc, rallye monte carlo 2012, sébastien loeb, dani sordo, kris meeke, david richards, petter solberg, jari-matti latvala,evgeny novikov, francois delecour, pierre campana, kevin abbring, sébastien ogier, p-g andersson, matthew wilson, paulo nobre, bryan bouffier, thierry neuville, my opinions, report

It has been announced that Kris Meeke won’t be doing Rallye Monte Carlo and highly probably quite a few other events in order to get Dani Sordo to drive in (at least?) 10 rallies. Meeke’s seat will be probably usually used by some pay-drivers, it will be Pierre Campana at Monte.

I have to sad I am sad, confused and disgusted. In this case probably by BMW because without their money Prodrive can do probably nothing since they have no main sponsor. Why did they enter WRC in the first place? I heard opinion that it was because they wanted to raise Countryman profile which sounds okay but it just still doesn’t make sense to me. I mean - why to spend loads of money to develop the car, start in the 2011 season and also to build a client programme when you want to back off it after about one year? I don’t know but aren’t the new manufacters supposed to enter something like WRC with some kind of long term plan/vision? Mini/BMW obviously didn’t and now when they achieved such great results it can almost be said they are victims of their own success. I guess this move would be more understandable if they sucked in 2011 season.

Another thing is this half-ditching (I probably invented a new word here) of Kris Meeke. Do contracts really means nothing in these times? (Don’t answer, it was a rhetorical question to which we all know the answer anyway.)

Then there is WRC itself with its for me quite confusing situation to which I don’t know if I fully understand (who does?). Yes, I am talking about that imprisoned guy and his company which owns North One Sport if I understand it correctly. North One Sport made one short announcement about the whole thing and then nothing which didn’t sound very convincing to me. The whole thing is very dubious and in fact nobody can blaim Mini/BMW for not being so keen to stay. Same goes for other teams, with Ford it also took quite long. Also, don’t get me to start about lack of promoting which North One Sport did during the last years and also about a fact that there are like 3 teams registered for 2012 so far and also only few people in SWRC and PWRC too. Maybe there will be also a big rant about these topics later, who knows how mad I will start to be about the whole thing.

Let’s go back to Kris Meeke. Prodrive has already said that he wasn’t ditched and he will still (probably) does some rallies and will be involved in testing, is part of the team and stuff. As I understand it - he will test and develop the car and everything for people who can money so they will race on rallies instead of him, fucking disgusting if you ask me (nothing against Pierre Campana and other drivers, it’s not their fault that they have money but it doesn’t make the whole thing any better). No wonder Meeke said that thing which is in the title of this article on his official twitter.

Dear Mini/BMW and WRC, please, sort yourself out and preferably quickly.

Disgusted rally fan.

tagged: wrc, kris meeke, pierre campana, mini, rant, my opinions