WRC 2012, Wold Rally championship

The 2012 World Rally Championship, aired on Motors TV and available live on motorstv.com, kicks off in January with the legendary Monte-Carlo Rally which has been absent from the series since 2008. Several other changes have also been made to the calendar for 2012. Rally Spain will end the season, while Rally Wales GB will be run in September. Rally Italia has been moved from May to October, while political unrest in the Middle East has caused the removal of Rally Jordan. Australia replaces New Zealand and will be contested in June. The Acropolis Rally has been moved from June to May, while Rally Finland will be held in August and not in July.

Qualifying to determine day one start order

While 2011 saw the introduction of the smaller direct injection 1600cc powered cars, the major changes for 2012 concern the day one starting order. Beginning with Monte-Carlo, priority 1 and 2 drivers will take part in, a two-run maximum, qualifying session for the gravel rallies. The order of these timed runs will allow the fastest driver to choose his starting position first, followed by the second and so on (the starting order for tarmac rounds remains unchanged). For the following days the starting order will be the inverse of the overall classifications… i.e. the leader will start last. This change comes after ongoing controversy in 2011. Sébastien Loeb complained several times throughout the season of having to sweep the road, while other driver’s could base their pace on his split times and purposely slow down to remain behind the Frenchman in the provisional classifications.  

Ogier signs with Volkswagen, Hirvonen at Citroën

Citroen, Ford and Mini return for 2012, while Sébastien Ogier, lost the battle of wills with Sébastien Loeb and has moved on to Volkswagen, which will spend the year testing the Polo R for an assault on the 2013 title. Ogier will compete, although it will be with a Skoda Fabia S2000, run by the VW factory squad. Mikko Hirvonen has moved from Ford to Citroen and will second the eight-time world champion in his bid to win his ninth title on the bounce. After months of speculation, Ford has extended its involvement as a factory entity for two more years. After doing a yeoman’s job to help fellow Finn, Hirvonen beat the unbeatable Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala is now clear leader of the Blue Oval team and welcomes 2003 WRC champion, Petter Solberg into the Fiesta camp. Mini has had its budget reduced do to BMW's involvement in a growing number championships and will enter one car for Dani Sordo and not take part in the entire WRC season. Kimi Raikkonen’s two-year WRC adventure is now a memory as the 2007 Formula One world champion returns to the series with Lotus. While Sébastien Loeb has recently created his proper racing team for perhaps a conversion down the road he has resigned with Citroen through 2013.

Loeb surpasses Schumacher and Rossi

Like in 2009, 2011 was chalk-full of suspense with the title up for grabs between Loeb and Hirvonen heading into the final round in Wales. This close battle wasn’t the result of a spectacular improvement put in by the Finn., but rather the sharing of top points by Loeb and Ogier. They battled throughout the season just until Loeb was resigned by Citroen, which swung the momentum pendulum in his favour. Over at Ford, Latvala valiantly played his role as number two driver, and helped Hirvonen as much as humanly possible, which included handing over a guaranteed win in Australia. But Latvala impressed the pundits with a season that included eight top three finishes and a win in the season finale. He now heads the list of potential future world championship. As for Loeb, the sport’s most accomplished driver of all time had his share of mechanical problems. He also committed two very uncharacteristic errors on his preferred surface, asphalt in Germany and France and another on the gravel in Australia before returning to his winning ways in Spain.
Coming into the final round of 2011, Rally Wales GB, Hirvonen trailed Loeb by eight points, but a driver error forced the Finn. to retire, handing Loeb his eighth world championship in a row. With the 2011 title, Loeb surpassed motor racings two other icons Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi in career world crowns.