Photo by: Brazil World Rally Team
A bit more of tarmac, forests, and vineyards for Daniel Oliveira
The Alsace region will be the venue for the Rallye de France, 11th round of the WRC
Daniel Oliveira and Carlos Magalhaes have just left behind Rally Australia, a kind of parenthesis in a tougher mini season with plenty of tarmac stages scheduled for the reminder of the calendar and which will continue next week with Rallye de France (September 30th- October 2nd).
With quite fresh memories of what their first experience in a 100% tarmac round meant a month and a half ago in Germany, the BWRT crew members are all ready to tackle this eleventh round of the FIA Wold Rally Championship.
Although it will be their first time competing in France, the event based in the Alsace region features some similar stages to those one they ran in Rallye Deutschland across amazing vineyards.
In fact, the city of Haguenau, where the Power Stage will take place it’s not so distant from Trier, base of the German round. However, they will find a less rough tarmac this time.
In this scenario Daniel’s main objective is to improve his driving skills on tarmac and to feel better on board a full-tarmac trim MINI John Cooper Works which has already showed a promissory overall performance on this surface.
Daniel’s word.
“For sure this second opportunity running on tarmac will give us more confidence. We enjoyed a good run in Germany although we didn’t start the rally well; however, it didn’t take us much time to build up our pace and set some good split times. The MINI is a good car running on tarmac, may be superior than it is on gravel up to now. Our aim for Rallye de France is to try to come up with a clean run and make the least number of mistakes possible. Then, we will see the results”.
Insight.
The Rally will have its base on the outskirts of Strasbourg, and will use a remote service halt in the city of Colmar on day two. The event's central location ensures the presence of many spectators; this is undoubtedly boosted due to the fact that Alsace is the region of the multiple champion Sebastien Loeb.
Schedule.
The pre-race activities will start with the recce during next Tuesday and Wednesday. The Shakedown will take place on Thursday morning in a 2.36km section and will be followed by the Ceremonial Start in the Zénith de Strasbourg arena.
Facts and figures.
The most recent winner was Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) in 2010 where he sealed his seventh title after running a Super Special held in his home town in Haguenau. Rallye de France will be valid for the WRC, SWRC and WRC Academy Championships with 65 drivers entering the event. Loeb leads the standings with 196 points closely followed behind by Mikko Hirvoenen (Ford) with 181 and his team-mate Sebastien Ogier (Citroen) with 167.
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