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Wolfsburg (19 January 2013). Absolutely “Monte”: Volkswagen showed an impressive debut in the FIA World Rally Championship. In one of the toughest editions of the Rally Monte Carlo in recent years, Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (F/F) managed to lead the Polo R WRC in its first competitive outing to second place. Podium: second place Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, Volkswagen Motorsport Photo by: XPB Images In difficult weather conditions with a mix of snow, ice, and wet asphalt next to bright sunshine, thick fog, and heavy rain Ogier/Ingrassa won two special stages on the classic through the French Maritime Alps. Behind the nine-time world champions Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (F/MC, Citroën), Ogier/Ingrassia achieved top times from the start, thus reaching the podium straightaway and on their own accord in the debut of the Polo R WRC. Their team colleagues Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN) were among the top five almost until the end of the rally. … [Read more...] about Strong debut: Volkswagen finishes ‘Monte’ in second place

Wolfsburg - It was an impressive debut from Volkswagen in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC): in their maiden competitive outing in the Polo R WRC, Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (F/F) promptly finished runner-up at the Rally Monte Carlo. In an interview, the Volkswagen works driver, who was making his first appearance in a World Rally Car at the "Monte", spoke about the success of the past four days. Congratulations on a perfect start to the 2013 season. Did you believe, before the start of the Rally Monte Carlo, that you would finish runner-up at the first attempt? “I really had no idea how well we would fair. The Rally Monte Carlo was the first time we had come up against the opposition in direct competition. Up until then we had only been able to compare data from the test drives with that from the Skoda Fabia S2000, with which I contested the whole of last season.” Sébastien Ogier, Volkswagen Polo WRC, Volkswagen Motorsport Photo by: XPB Images … [Read more...] about Sébastien Ogier: The first time I’ve been happy with second place

The American manufacturer expressed satisfaction with the run on Thursday and Friday with Romain Dumas and Franck Mailleux driving the Pipo-engined 007 LMH FIA World Endurance Championship contender. Marque boss Jim Glickenhaus revealed that the focus on the first day was on calibrating the car's electronics before extended running began on day two. "On the first day we had to work out the software, which was complicated because with COVID neither the guys from Bosch nor Xtrac [respectively responsible for the car's electronics and gearbox] could travel and we had to establish remote data lines," he told Motorsport.com. "But on Friday we just kept lapping, lapping and lapping. Romain told me and he has been involved with bigger manufacturers than us who couldn't do four laps in two days." Glickenhaus believes that the team "learned a lot" over the course of the test. "We only did 20 laps on the first day, but we completed around about 100 on day two," he said. "We … [Read more...] about Glickenhaus satisfied with maiden hypercar test

The final day consisted of two passes through the 22.47 km Aittajarvi stage and Toyota claimed a 1-2 on its morning run as Elfyn Evans claimed his second stage win of the event from Rovanpera, with the Hyundai of Thierry Neuville just 0.1s behind in third. The battle between Rovanpera and Neuville for second place on the rally would also determine the provisional championship lead. The points leader coming into the Lapland-based rally was defending title holder Sebastien Ogier, who had battled an unfavourable road position throughout the event, and restarted on Sunday after crashing out at the flying finish of Saturday’s final stage. The Frenchman’s only objective was to rescue some points from the Powerstage and he duly treated the world to a textbook performance on the ragged edge. Ogier’s time was almost 11 seconds faster than his morning run, but this provisional fastest time was something at which the rest of the field took aim. The first to challenge Ogier was … [Read more...] about Arctic WRC: Tanak beats record-breaker Rovanpera

Between 1997 and 2014, Kristensen won the world’s toughest sportscar race a record nine times for Joest Porsche, Audi and Bentley, and finished on the podium on five more occasions. Across 18 years of racing in the French classic, he stood on the podium every time his car made it to the finish. He also won the Sebring 12 Hours a record six times in a glittering sportscar career. Now retired from racing, Kristensen shares his deepest personal reflections and insights from both inside and outside the cockpit – including his horrifying DTM accident in 2007, which threatened his racing career. Voted ‘Sports Book of the Year’ when originally published in Kristensen’s native Denmark, his memoir is now available in English for the first time – featuring bonus content from Motorsport.com’s Global Editor in Chief, Charles Bradley , and renowned sportscar journalist Gary Watkins. For Prime subscribers: How Tom Kristensen forged his ‘Mr Le Mans’ legend The book … [Read more...] about Tom Kristensen reveals career secrets in ‘Mr Le Mans’ book