Skip to main content

WRC: Bright Start for Volkswagen in Spain



  • Grand backdrop for opener: Barcelona gives rally elite a worthy reception

  • Andreas Mikkelsen first, Sébastien Ogier second, Jari-Matti Latvala fourth


Short, sweet, skilful: Volkswagen made a good start to the Rally Spain. At the foot of the famous Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (N/N) clocked the fastest time on the only special stage laid out on the narrow terraces. Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (F/F) were second fastest, with Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN) fourth on the opening stage. With world-famous architecture lining the route through the heart of Barcelona, the rally stars were given a rapturous welcome from an enthusiastic crowd who had turned out to watch stage one of the twelfth round of this season’s FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). The World Rally Cars, including the three Polo R WRC, passed the Barcelona Pavilion, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe and built for the 1929 International Exposition, crossed the famous Plaça de Carles Buïgas with its fountain, and drifted beneath the National Art Museum.



With the short but spectacular 3.2-kilometre opener behind them, the teams really get stuck into the Rally Spain on Friday, when they will face 138.54 kilometres on gravel. The Rally Spain is the only round of the WRC held on both gravel and asphalt. The eyes of rally fans around the world will be on the all-Volkswagen duel between Ogier and Latvala: should Latvala finish ahead of Ogier, the title race will go down to the final rally in Great Britain. If Ogier beats Latvala, he will be crowned World Rally Champion with one event remaining.


Quotes after the opening stage of the Rally Spain


Sébastien Ogier, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #1

“We made it through the opening special stage cleanly. The Rally Spain really gets going tomorrow. There were an incredible number of spectators on the Montjuïc, and it was great to get the weekend started against this backdrop. From tomorrow we will focus on the duel with my team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala and, if possible, wrapping up the Driver and Co-Drivers’ title here in Spain. I don’t think we will be the ones under the greatest pressure.”


Jari-Matti Latvala, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #2

“The opening stage was short but demanding. The Polo was superb. I reckoned on losing a little time today, and fit just one soft and three hard tyres on the car. I think having used fewer soft tyres will pay dividends from tomorrow, when the battle with Sébastien Ogier really begins.”


Andreas Mikkelsen, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #9

“We decided to attack right from the first special stage and are counting on gaining more time on softs here than we might end up losing on old tyres tomorrow. Part one of the plan went well: we opened about a two-second gap and lead going into the first real day of rallying tomorrow. Let’s see whether part two of the plan works out.”


Jost Capito, Volkswagen Motorsport Director

“A successful start to the Rally Spain on a remarkable special stage. It provided a magnificent backdrop. The sporting action really gets underway tomorrow, when the cars head onto the gravel stages. We have an extremely exciting Rally Spain ahead of us. Sébastien Ogier wants to win the title here, because he knows: anything is possible in Great Britain. Jari-Matti Latvala wants to keep the title race in the Driver and Co-Drivers’ Championship alive, because he also knows: anything is possible in Great Britain. And then we also have Andreas Mikkelsen, who is hungry for his first win. This Rally Spain will be anything but boring.”




















































FIA World Rally Championship (WRC),

Rally Spain – Results
Thursday,

23 October 2014		km#1

Ogier/

Ingrassia		#2

Latvala/

Anttila		#9

Mikkelsen/

Fløene
SS 01Barcelona03.20P02

(+ 1.8s)		P04

(+ 3.1s)		P01
Overall classificationP02

(+ 1.8s)		P04

(+ 3.1s)		P01













































































FIA World Rally Championship (WRC),

Rally Spain – TV broadcast
Western Europe
Andorra (Canal +); Austria (LAOLA1.tv, ORF, RTL, ServusTV, Sport 1); Belgium (Canal +, RTBF); Denmark (TV3 Sport, VIASAT); Finland (MTV3, YLE Sport); France (Canal +, France TV, Léquipe 21, TF1); Germany (Sport1, RTL, n-tv, LAOLA1.tv, ServusTV); Greece (OTE); Ireland (Setanta); Italy (RAI, Canale Italia, Sportitalia); Liechtenstein (RTL, ServusTV, Sport 1); Luxembourg (Canal +, RTL, ServusTV, Sport 1); Monaco (Canal +, France TV, Léquipe 21, TF1); Netherlands (RTL 7); Norway (VIASAT, Viasat Sport); Portugal (Sport TV, RTP); Spain (Canal +); Sweden (SVT); Switzerland (Canal +, RTL, ServusTV, Sport 1); United Kingdom (ITV 4); Wales (S4C)
Eastern Europe
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan (Auto Plus); Croatia (SPTV); Czech Republic, Slovakia (Czech TV, Sport 5); Poland (TV 4, TVP); Romania (Dolce Sport); Ukraine (First Automotive Channel, Auto Plus)
Middle East and Africa
Angola, Mozambique (Canal +, Sport TV, SuperSport); Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (Canal +, SuperSport); Lesotho, Liberia, Mayotte, Reunion, Socotra, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, St Helena & Ascension, Sudan, Swaziland (SuperSport)
Asia Pacific
Malaysia (Astro); Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Caledonia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam (ESPN Star); Japan (J Sports); New Zealand (Sky Sports); Australia (Speed TV); Thailand (Truevision)
North and Latin America
Argentina (Channel 12, Fox Sports); Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, USA (MAV TV); Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela (Fox Sports); Brazil (ESPN); Paraguay (Fox Sports, Telefuturo)
International
Worldwide (Reuters, SNTV)

The post WRC: Bright Start for Volkswagen in Spain appeared first on VWVortex.






from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1zoAYid

via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...
2 comments
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more