WRC - 2013 | Round 10 - Coates Hire Rally Australia

Andreas Mikkelsen leads the Rally Australia after a couple of successive spectator special stages, at Coffs Harbour . Although it is too e...

Andreas Mikkelsen leads the Rally Australia after a couple of successive spectator special stages, at Coffs Harbour.



Although it is too early to rejoice, the Norwegian has managed to lead in a WRC rally for the first time ever. Kris Meeke is behind him, in less than a second and Latvala is third overall. Thierry Neuville & Sebastien Ogier are 4^th and 5^th respectively.

Day 1

Citroen WRT's new recruit Kris Meeke went fastest through the with the shakedown stage, which was very much dry and dusty. It had not rained in the past 3 three weeks in the region and the rally is expected to trouble the drivers with the dust, if it doesn't rain during this weekend.

Thierry Neuville was 3rd quickest in Qualifying, and started 8th on the road, said; “Of course the second fastest time in Qualifying would have been better than third, but Kris [Meeke] was on a really big push and I am happy with my position. It was not a perfect run, and we could have gone faster in places, but eighth on the road is not a bad place to be.”

“Now, we just need to get a good rhythm from the start and take each stage as it comes. My main aim this weekend is to keep hold of my second place in the championship so we will be keeping a close eye on Jari-Matti [Latvala].”

Top ten results at the end of Day 1, SS2.

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff     Prev	Diff    1st
1.	9	A. MIKKELSEN		2:45.3	0.0	0.0
2.	3	K. MEEKE		2:46.2	+0.9	+0.9
3.	7	J. LATVALA		2:46.2	+0.5	+1.4
4.	8	S. OGIER		1:23.5	+0.1	+1.5
5.	2	M. HIRVONEN		1:23.7	+0.4	+1.9
6.	11	T. NEUVILLE		1:23.8	+0.8	+2.7
7.	4	M. OSTBERG		1:24.5	+1.9	+4.6
8.	5	E. NOVIKOV		1:25.9	+1.9	+6.5
9.	10	K. AL QASSIMI		1:26.6	+1.6	+8.1
10.	22	N. QUINN		1:28.9	+2.2	+10.3

The frenchman Ogier could win the driver's championship, provided he makes more than 9 points off Thierry Neuville. Listen to him in this brief video below.

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Day 2

Sebastien Ogier takes the lead early on day 2 after the opening stage, and also winning straight 7 of the 8 stages of the day. Fellow VW Polo R driver Jari-Matti Latvala regains his rhythm by taking the final stage victory. Baseline, it was an all Volkswagen day.

First pass through the three main stages, were reported very slippery with too much loose ground. This didn't stop the Frenchman to regain an early lead and start building up the gap with the other drivers. Mikko Hirvonen was looking in good form and started tailing Ogier, although it was not enough to slow him down.

Latvala suffered with lack of confidence since morning stages, although started to regain his for by the rest half of the day. M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS driver Thierry Neuville too suffered in the opening stages, still his time was not so bad and finished third overall by the day's finish.



Citroen's latest driver Kris Meeke was quick enough to settle through the dusty stages, with the running order of last of the WRC cars seemed to be of some help.

Top 10 scoreboard by the end of SS10, Day 2

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff     Prev	Diff    1st
1.	8	S. OGIER		58:46.6	0.0	0.0
2.	2	M. HIRVONEN		59:06.6	+20.0	+20.0
3.	11	T. NEUVILLE		59:24.7	+18.1	+38.1
4.	3	K. MEEKE		59:25.2	+0.5	+38.6
5.	7	J. LATVALA		59:44.8	+19.6	+58.2
6.	4	M. OSTBERG		59:48.3	+3.5	+1:01.7
7.	9	A. MIKKELSEN		59:50.4	+2.1	+1:03.8
8.	5	E. NOVIKOV		59:55.8	+5.4	+1:09.2
9.	22	N. QUINN		1:02:49.2	+2:53.4	+4:02.6
10.	10	K. AL QASSIMI		1:03:28.0	+38.8	+4:41.4

Here is an exclusive ride with Ogier's onboard camera in SS5.

Tomorrow features a marathon stage, Nambucca [49.9 km] and Valla [14.84 km], that are run twice after a 30min mid-day service.

A couple of final SSS at Coffs Harbour will mark the end of the day for Saturday's leg.

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Day 3

The penultimate day of Coates Hire Rally Australia was taken over by Sebastien Ogier! The Frenchman went on to claim all the 6 stage wins to extend off with a clear 45.9s to his nearest rival, the Citroen's Mikko Hirvonen. M-Sport's Thierry Neuville finished the day with third overall, with over a minute of gap to the rally leader. If all goes will the French VW Polo R driver, Ogier will be crowned the championship of the season, along with his co-driver Julien Ingrassia.

Day 3, consisted of just two stages run twice, apart from the day's ending, twice run SSS. SS11 - Nambucca I, was the first to run with a mighty 49.9 km distance separating the start and stop timers. Ogier started the day road to victory winning the stage and the next SS12 - Valla I was the next at hand with a distance of 14.84 km, and bagged it too.

After a 30 minute service, the rally returned back to re-run the morning loop, and the Frenchman out lead the rest of the field to secure a healthy gap, stage after stage.



It was a disappointing for the Britain's Kris Meeke when he crashed out on the second pass of the mighty SS13 - Nambucca II, when he went a little faster into a right hander corner and rolled down the hilly slope to retire for the day.

"It's quite simple. I made a mistake by braking a little bit too late," the Brit explains, "the car turned into the corner, but we ran wide and slipped off the road and down a steep bank into a field. We rolled several times, very slowly."

With Meeke's car in hand, the Citroen service staff had a tough job in their hands once the the FIA technical staff gave a green signal, after verifying the safety parameters to let him rejoin tomorrow in Rally 2 format. And they did it well indeed.



It was the VW Motorsport team who were very happy at the end of the day, with their prospects. However it certainly left Citroen's boss unhappy with the situation in hand, with Meeke's unwanted retirement and hence the chance of making it to the top of the Manufacturer's title race - a tough one.



Top 10 scoreboard by the end of SS16, Day 2

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff     Prev	Diff    1st
1.	8	S. OGIER		2:14:53.9	0.0	0.0
2.	2	M. HIRVONEN		2:15:39.8	+45.9	+45.9
3.	11	T. NEUVILLE		2:16:05.3	+25.5	+1:11.4
4.	7	J. LATVALA		2:16:41.5	+36.2	+1:47.6
5.	9	A. MIKKELSEN		2:17:04.7	+23.2	+2:10.8
6.	4	M. OSTBERG		2:17:07.3	+2.5	+2:13.3
7.	5	E. NOVIKOV		2:21:30.5	+4:23.2	+6:36.6
8.	22	N. QUINN		2:24:04.7	+2:34.2	+9:10.8
9.	10	K. AL QASSIMI		2:25:16.9	+1:12.2	+10:23.0
10.	48	A. AL-KUWARI		2:26:54.0	+1:37.1	+12:00.1

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Day 4 - [Final Leg]

Sebastien Ogier wins Rally Australia, but looses the crown due to Mikko's misfortune! The Citroen driver started off the day with the opening stage victory, and the rest was claimed by the Frenchman. 

Top three places were at the safe-keeping with Ogier, Mikko and Thierry Neuville, respectively - until a puncture to Mikko's rear left costed him his second place to the Fiesta RS driver and slipped to third place on the podium.

So, in the final showdown of Rally Australia, the Frenchman was in the verge of claiming his maiden crown for driver's championship and looses due to a single point - all because, Mikko Hirvonen lost his second place in the final stage [Power Stage]. Wondering how? Read on!

Coming down to the points mathematics, all it counts on who makes the most points at the end of the season. And any possibility of the nearest competitors to challenge it, with any feasible permutation and combination  that is achievable, will leave the title-race open. And that is what exactly happened here!

1. Ogier has so far accumulated a total of 212 points so-far in the championship, including Rally Australia's victory.


2. Neuville has 129 points after finishing second here at Rally Australia, after gaining an additional two points [i,e., 20 for second place, instead of 18 from third] in finishing second overall due to Mikko's slip.


3. And in an any weird possiblity that Ogier doesn't score any points in the rest of the three rounds and Neuville manages to bag the maximum points from all the three rallies, i,e., 3 x (25+3) = 84 points, then he will total to a maximum of 213 points. Voila!! there it is, the Belgian is the champion!!


4. And, if Ogier manages just 1 point in any of the upcoming rallies, he will be the undisputed champion regardless of who scores what!

I know, I know... that above third point was not too realistic to even imagine to Ogier not finishing any points hereafter this season whatsoever! But this is world of rallying, and with none with the power to predict the future - we never know!!