MotorsTV UK Official Blog

Hi everyone,

I’m back from Rallye Deutschland and at M-Sport headquarters today catching up on some emails.  

I’m quite pleased with my result in Germany – we hadn’t done any testing in the [Ford] Focus on asphalt since the last all-tarmac round in Bulgaria in June so I wasn’t sure how it would go.  We had a few ups and downs throughout the weekend, I didn’t have as much experience using the hard compound Pirelli P-Zero tyres compared to the softer tyres so our times suffered a little bit.  It was good to get some practice using them though, especially as we have two further asphalt rounds coming up this season.

Saturday was probably our most difficult day, we had a whole new set of notes for Saturday morning’s stages so that slowed us down and then Kimi Räikkönen, who we had been ahead for most of the rally, started to pull away from us.  It was so frustrating.  However, Sunday was much better and we put in a clear run on the day’s first stage which put us back in the hunt.  Kimi was close on our tail throughout the day though and as the last stage of the rally was a Super Special I was pretty nervous – Kimi had a definite advantage as it was his preferred surface from his Formula One days.  He put in the fastest time but I finished the Super Special second-fastest and secured sixth place ahead of him.  I was pleased to have fought back and it’s been my best result in Germany to date – a good rally all round.

We also had some new team-mates in Germany – Francois Duval and Denis Giraudet.  I hadn’t worked with Francois for a couple of years and it was nice to see him back in a rally car after several months away from the WRC. Scott [Martin] and I were impressed by how fast he was, especially on Saturday before he had his big crash.  We were behind him on the stage and saw what had happened before everybody else – Francois was standing outside the car which was on its roof and waved us on but I couldn’t see Denis.  We were both concerned as we hadn’t seen Denis and thought maybe something had happened to him but we later found out he was OK – it was a huge relief.  The guys were lucky in a sense – the hinkelsteins that are littered at the side of that stage are designed to stop tanks as the area used to be a military zone, if they’d impacted directly on a hinkelstein instead of just beside it then it could have been much, much worse. 

I’m going to London tomorrow for a couple of days with my family but then I’ll be back at the end of this week to prepare for Japan.  Japan is an interesting place – it’s so different culturally.  I’ve got a bit of a love-hate relationship with the country, it’s great initially because it’s so different but after I’ve been there for a week I’m ready to come home again. We’ve got a good track record over there – I finished fourth there a few years ago so hopefully we can do well again there this year.  I can’t believe there’s only four WRC rounds remaining – this year has gone so quickly, I’m aiming for another top five before the end of the season.

MW

Hi,

We have successfully completed a very long, but good day 1 of Rally Finland.  We are currently sitting 22nd overall and 3rd PWRC, only 0.7 seconds behind 2nd and with a fast local closing in from behind.

We have had no major problems today.  On the morning loop of four stages we were suffering from a bad vibration through the car, which was the result of 3 bent rims from 3 different impacts with rocks.  On one of these I was amazed that the Pirelli tyre stayed inflated and nothing else broke, such was the size of the rock and the impact.

We have been consistently in the top 5 PWRC times all day, including two top 3 stage times.  I had high expectations coming into this event, but I really underestimated just how quick the locals and Scandinavians are here, on an event most of them are quite familiar with.  A fair example of this is stage 7/9 today, which was a brand new stage that had never been used before.  Despite struggling for a bit of a rhythm, we set top 3 PWRC stage times both times through and each time were only 1-2 seconds off the stage win.

So, all in all, it has been an okay day, but there is certainly a small feeling of disappointment that we haven’t found the extra speed that I know we have.  However, tomorrow is another day and we now have a very tough battle with two very fast local drivers to secure a PWRC podium place.  Tomorrow is also a long day, so there is plenty of rallying left to make up time, learn and gain experience for future events.  So far though, we are all on target.

The spectators here have been absolutely crazy.  It is like the whole of Finland has come to the rally to party.  The spectators today wouldn’t just be counted in the thousands, but hundreds of thousands.  One of the stages in particular at the start and finish had a parked line of spectator’s vehicles of 5km and that did not include all the spectators at the main vantage points in the stage.  It has been a great experience and also a real buzz to see my family and the Rally Tours group all wearing Team Green clothing and waving the New Zealand flag, cheering us on.

Thanks everyone and I will keep you posted tomorrow. 

Hayden

Just back from Rally Bulgaria, and it was a very tough event.

It was great to see a World Rally Championship round held somewhere new for a change though.  We enjoyed having Poland on the calendar last year, so we were looking forward to another rally in Eastern Europe again this year.  New rallies are good for keeping the WRC calendar fresh and exciting.  It helps keep all the drivers on their toes too – nobody knew what to expect from the stages so we were all in the same boat.

I was slightly disappointed with my overall result.  I hadn’t driven on tarmac since Spain last year, and after so many gravel rounds this year it took me a lot of time to adjust to the change of surface.  I was really pleased for our new team-mates P-G and Jonas – considering it was their first outing in a Ford Focus they did extremely well and I hope they’ll get a chance to compete under the Stobart banner with us again soon.  They’re brilliant guys and extremely focused.

It turned out to be a very, very fast rally – quicker than most other tarmac rounds and a lot faster than Catalunya.  It was also quite an unusual event as the road surface was so dirty, which is not typical of normal European tarmac round.  Over the first two days the stages reached over 2100 metres, making it the highest WRC round held in Europe and similar to the sort of altitudes we experienced in Mexico earlier this year.   There were parts of the stages that were very technical and some sections were rough with broken up asphalt, which made it difficult to interpret.  Scott [Martin] did a great job with the pace notes though and I felt I was starting to get used to handling the car by the final day.  It’s just a shame it took me so long to adjust after driving on gravel for so long.

Now I’m back at home in Cumbria and preparing for Finland.  I’m spending some time this week looking at the data from Bulgaria with my engineers to see where I can improve my performance for the three remaining tarmac rallies.  Fortunately, the next tarmac rounds should be easier than Bulgaria – we know the stages from Germany and Spain and I’ll know how to get the best from the car next time round.

I’m really looking forward to Finland, it’s the spiritual home of rallying and there’s a huge buzz all week, it’s definitely one of the best rallies of the championship.  It’s always a real test with the massive jumps and impacts on landing, but I’ve always managed to finish inside the top ten there so it’s been a good rally for me in the past.  Naturally the Finns do very well at this event, and it’s usually dominated by local drivers who know the stages like the back of their hands, but if I maintain a good pace throughout I’m confident I’ll be able to improve on my eighth place finish from last year.

Mikko [Hirvonen] won Rally Finland last year and as it’s also his 30th birthday when we’re there, I expect he’ll be hungry to win it again.  The rest of us will have to chase him as best we can!

Hi,

We have successfully completed the final day of Rally Whangarei and have hang on for our third victory of this event. We won all but one of today’s eight stages and the final winning margin was 3 minutes and 55 seconds over fellow Kiwi Emma Gilmour. The weekend has been perfect and everything has run like clockwork, thanks to the whole team.

The expected bad weather that was forecasted for today did arrive which made conditions very tricky. We knew that being first on the road today would be a slight advantage but we also knew that the repeated run of the four stages would be very slippery. With this in mind we targeted the morning loop stages to achieve our main goal of the day – stage records. With a healthy overnight lead we did not want to fall into the same trap as we did at Rally New Zealand where we cruised to the finish, especially as this weekend was all about seat time and developing my driving. So we targeted stage records, of which we set 3 new stage records from the 4, including the one from 2004 that had eluded us in previous years.

During the first loop we were pushing on two stages very hard and things felt very comfortable despite the wet conditions. It was also the most fun and the most confidence that I have had behind the wheel before. During the afternoon stages with the worsening conditions, we backed off a notch to concentrate on getting to the end and completing a perfect weekend for the whole team.

To stand on the top of the podium at the end with the New Zealand National Anthem in the background is a very special feeling and now the target is to carry this confidence and development that we have done with my driving this weekend onwards into the WRC with the remaining Pirelli rounds. I am also being realistic that it is a completely different kettle of fish overseas but that is now the target which I believe with a little more time and experience we can do.

So all in all a perfect weekend, 1st overall, 1st Asia Pacific Championship, 1st Pacific Cup and 1st New Zealand Rally Championship.

A huge thanks to everyone that has made this weekend possible for us, including the team who as usual have done a incredible job prior and during the event. Thanks Dad, John, Math, Neil, AD, Rob, Katie,  Jackie and to all our sponsors and supporters. Also a huge thanks to the event organisers and volunteers who had to deal with the dreadful weather while making the event possible for us!

Tomorrow we head home, then it is a busy 2 weeks getting the car rebuilt and packed for Japan. Also in the meantime we have a lot of preparation and training to do for Finland which we leave for in just over 2 weeks time.

Hayden

Hello everyone, June was supposed to be a month off from the WRC calendar but it’s been a crazy few weeks for me and it hasn’t felt like any form of break!

Myself, Scott [Martin, co-driver] and Barry [fitness trainer] went to Corsica the week after we got back from Rally de Portugal to complete the Tour de Corse cycle challenge in aid of The RPJ Crohn’s Foundation. Considering there was a group of us doing a 1000km bike ride, I was really surprised at how smoothly everything went – we didn’t get any punctures or encounter any major problems for the entire week. Scott did a good job of sorting out our schedule before we left but we didn’t always stick to it and when we were having a good day, we really pushed ourselves. On the final day we only had 100km left to reach the end and that’s when the adrenaline kicked in! It was mostly downhill at that stage so we just bombed it to end and finished well ahead of schedule. It was such a good feeling to finally make it to the finish.

There was one epic day where we did 171 kms round the Corsica coast – the weather was perfect and the scenery was unbelievable. A real low point was about half way through when we had to do a 34km climb up to 1477 metres – it was such hard work and a real test of our endurance. It was also very hot whilst we were cycling – it never fell below 33 degrees Celsius – but on one afternoon we had a bit of rain which felt amazing after the intense heat. I caught a cold on the final weekend which made the last two days cycling very hard going. Despite this, I really enjoyed the whole experience and it was so satisfying to get to the end of the 1000km and raise money for such a good cause. Since we’ve been back, we’ve also been doing some extra fundraising through eBay and we’ve even sold one of my old race suits. I’m currently selling my signed t-shirt from the Tour de Corse (don’t worry, it’s been washed!) and some various signed merchandise from M-Sport including a signed book from Valentino Rossi. You can view what’s all up for sale here – Tour de Corse charity auction.

After all that I did manage to escape to the south of France for a few days holiday, but now I’m back to work and preparing for Rally Bulgaria next week. This is the first time there has been a WRC round there so I’m intrigued as to what it’ll be like. It’s good in the sense that the stages will be new to everyone so no driver will hold any clear advantage over another in terms of knowing the roads better. It’s also going to be the first all tarmac round of the season and I think this is bound to throw up a few surprises along the way. Looking forward to getting stuck into it and I’ll update you on what Bulgaria is like when I get there.

MW

You can follow live updates from Matthew on Twitter via www.twitter.com/StobartWRC or become a fan of the official Stobart M-Sport Ford Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stobart-M-Sport-Ford-Rally-Team/10150137030195403?ref=ts