Motorsport: Mitsubishi's Dakar glory, Citroen's Monte

Monday motorsport reportJanuary 22, 2007

Seven in a row for Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi has taken victory in the Dakar Rally for the seventh straight time, despite not winning a stage this year. It is also the 12th win in the 25-year history of Mitsubishi's team competing in the world's toughest and most famous off-road rally.

France's Stephane Peterhansel and Luc Alphand finished first and second in Mitsubishi Pajeros, while Jean-Louis Schlesser completed a French podium by taking third in his Ford-powered buggy. Another Frenchman, Cyril Despres, won the motorcycle section on a KTM -- the seventh straight win for that two-wheel manufacturer.

The 41-year-old Peterhansel now has a record nine Dakar victories -- six on motorbikes and three in cars. Those three on four wheels have come in just four years and this time he finished more than seven minutes ahead of Alphand, who won last year.

Volkswagen dominated the stage wins, with 10 by its Touaregs. Spain's dual world rally champion Carlos Sainz was victorious for VW in five of the 14 stages in the two-week event between Lisbon in Portugal and Dakar, the capital of Senegal, while South African Giniel de Villiers won four stages in another VW, including the short 16km final stage in Dakar, while Portugal's Carlos Sousa won the first stage in a VW. Yet American Mark Miller was the top VW finisher, in fourth.

In the motorcycle section, Despres inherited the lead on Friday when Spaniard Marc Coma lost his way and crashed his KTM into a tree six kilometres off the route while almost an hour ahead. Coma, who had won the two-wheel division last year, suffered a head injury and lost consciousness. Frenchman Despres' earlier Dakar victory was in 2005. KTM filled the first four positions this year and seven of the top 10.

French rider Eric Aubijoux died of a heart attack on Saturday after the penultimate stage, becoming the second fatality in this year's event. Competing in his sixth Dakar, the 42-year-old Aubijoux felt faint, stopped his Yamaha bike and had a heart attack.

The Dakar has now claimed 50 lives in its 29 years -- 25 of them competitors. South African rider Elmer Symons, taking part in his first Dakar as a competitor, died on January 9 after crashing on the fourth day in Morocco.

Last year Australian motorcyclist Andy Caldecott died in a crash and two children were killed after being hit by vehicles passing through packed desert villages. Two years ago the 2001 and '02 motorcycle winner Fabrizio Meoni of Italy and Juan Manuel Perez of Spain were killed.

Out of this year's capacity entry of 185 cars, 247 bikes and quads and 85 trucks, only 109 cars, 132 bikes and quads and 60 trucks reached the finish after a shortened route of 7,915km, of which 4,309km were competitive. Dutchman Hans Stacey won the truck section in a MAN, ending the series of Kamaz victories.

Dakar top 10 (cars section) -- 1. Stephane Peterhansel (France) Mitsubishi 45 hours 53 minutes 37 seconds; 2. Luc Alphand (France) Mitsubishi 46:01:03; 3. Jean-Louis Schlesser (France) Schlesser-Ford 47:27:34; 4. Mark Miller (US) Volkswagen 48:03:53; 5. Hiroshi Masuoka (Japan) Mitsubishi 48:38:08; 6. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar) BMW 49:25:36; 7. Carlos Sousa (Portugal) VW 51:04:31; 8. Robby Gordon (US) Hummer 52:57:44; 9. Carlos Sainz (Spain) VW 53:19:22; 10. Stephane Henrard (Belgium) VW 54:22:06.

Atkinson brilliant in Monte Carlo Rally
Australian Chris Atkinson has made a brilliant start to the world rally championship, winning three stages of the Monte Carlo Rally -- his first wins on asphalt at the top level -- as French superstar Sebastien Loeb won the event for the fourth time and gave Citroen's C4 a debut victory.

In his best drive on tarmac, Atkinson won two stages on Saturday and then last night's short 2.8km sprint in Monaco, including on part of the famous grand prix track, to snatch fourth place overall by 0.2 seconds.

Atkinson and his co-driver, fellow Australian Glenn Macneall, were in a 2006 Subaru Impreza and competing on BF Goodrich tyres for the first time after the Japanese's manufacturer's long association with Pirelli ended. Atkinson's higher profile teammate, Norwegian Petter Solberg, finished sixth after briefly slipping into a ditch on Saturday.

The Australian went into the final stage 0.8 seconds behind the Ford Focus of Finland's Mikko Hirvonen, with whom he had an enthralling battle on Saturday as they traded stage wins. Atkinson's previous best result on tarmac was sixth in Monte Carlo last year.

Now in his third WRC season, but competing in only his second Monte, Atkinson says: "I've got a new frame of mind this year, and I've trained exceptionally hard, and I'm really pumped about what we can do in the remainder of the season.

"To come out and win the final stage here and finish in fourth overall is absolutely awesome. To be fighting like this on asphalt is so encouraging for the team. This is one of the best rallies we've ever had. It feels like we've reached a new level on asphalt and the team is coming along very well."

Loeb began his chase for a record-equaling fourth consecutive world title with his 29th victory, making him the fourth driver to win the Monte four times -- the others were Italian Sandro Munari, German Walter Rohrl and Finn Tommi Mäkinen.

Loeb beat his Citroen teammate, Spaniard Dani Sordo, by 38.2 seconds, while Ford's Marcus Gronholm of Finland -- winner of the Monte last year -- was 1 minute 22.8 seconds behind the Frenchman in third place.

The only other drivers with four world rally titles are Finns Juha Kankkunen and Makinen. The latter is the only driver to win four successive world titles, from 1996-99.

The 32-year-old Loeb won the title in a works Citroen in 2004 and 2005 before defending it last year in a privately-entered Citroen Xsara, even though he missed the final rounds with a broken arm which is still not fully recovered (and Ford ended up winning the '06 manufacturers' title).

"My shoulder is not so strong at the moment," says Loeb, who won six of the Monte's 15 stages this year as he dominated in the mountains of southern France. He and Sordo had enough of an advantage by Saturday that they backed off.

The next round of the WRC is in Sweden on February 9-11, while Subaru won't have its new model car in competition until the fourth round in Mexico.

Solberg, a former world champion who was greatly frustrated with Subaru lagging badly on technical development last year, says: "We are closer to the pace of the Fords than I'd expected we would be, although clearly we have a lot of work to do to catch the Citroens."

WRC championship points -- Drivers: Loeb 10, Sordo 8, Gronholm 6, Atkinson 5, Hirvonen 4, Solberg 3;  Manufacturers: Citroen 18, Ford 10, Subaru 8.

Onwards and upwards for Lowndes
Craig Lowndes harbors no bitterness, publicly at least, about last year's V8 Supercar Championship, saying of the controversial end to the season that he's "over it". Lowndes even sent Rick Kelly a Christmas greeting by email, and intends to emulate his Holden rival this year by plotting a strategy to maximise the points system as he mounts another campaign for his first title since 1999.

The Triple Eight Ford team will unveil the new look of Lowndes and Jamie Whincup's Falcons in Sydney tomorrow (Tuesday). Lowndes says already though that he wants to adopt Kelly's approach and see how the '07 championship points system can work best for him.

While Kelly took last year's title without winning a round -- Lowndes won four, including Bathurst -- the points system this year will reward race victories more. There is now a 12-point difference between first and second in races, compared to just four last year, and the top 15 finishers will be awarded points rather than all 31 competitors last year. And drivers won't get to drop their worst round result this season.

"We are going to look at the points system," Lowndes says. "We will knuckle down and have a game plan for the championship instead of just trying to win everything every round. You'd love to win every round but you can't because the competition is that tough. It is a matter of working the system and making it better for us."

Larkham out of WPS Racing
Just a year after merging his V8 Supercar team into Craig Gore's operation, Mark Larkham is out as team manager at WPS Racing -- and Gore is in charge until a replacement is found. It's being called a team restructure and the two key men claim it is amicable.

"There is nothing acrimonious in this decision, but as we went down the road of a total restructure needed to take this operation to the next level it evolved that Mark would not be part of the plan going forward," Gore says.

Larkham says: "It became evident that it was time for me to move on and look for new challenges. I support this restructure 100 per cent and Craig Gore and myself retain a terrific on-going business relationship and friendship."

Ambrose 'making it' at Daytona
Marcos Ambrose has been enjoying his first test at Daytona International Speedway as he prepares for his season in NASCAR's second division, the Busch Series.

"It's a lot bumpier than I thought, a lot narrower than I thought, but it's just a thrill to be here," Ambrose says. "It feels today that I've actually made it to NASCAR."

In the eyes of the Americans that may be premature, but the Tasmanian Devil has been setting good times in his Ford and it is giving it a big shot, with plans for at least two Nextel Cup starts on road courses as well this year. The racing season is still a few weeks away.

France's Loic Duval, making his A1 debut, was second in the 15-lap sprint and the 50-lap feature while NZ's Jonny Reid was third in both races, unable to find a way around Duval on the revamped Taupo track made treacherous by dust.

After six rounds in the second season of the "World Cup of Motorsport", Germany has 65 points, France 46 and NZ 43. The biggest losers at the weekend were Britain and Mexico, which started the round second and third overall but ended it in fourth and fifth.

Australia is 13th on 18 points, with the next round at Sydney's Eastern Creek on February 4. Karl Reindler, who has taken over the driving duties for A1 Team Australia from Ryan Briscoe, qualified 20th in the field of 22 at Taupo and finished 14th in the sprint, 31.686sec behind Hulkenberg, and 13th in the feature, 1 minute 12.628 seconds adrift of the German.

Auckland-born McLaren overcame Perthes' disease, a crippling joint problem that kept him in traction for two years in childhood, to become, at age 22, the youngest winner of an F1 race -- the 1959 United States Grand Prix. He was killed testing one of his beautiful CanAm sports cars in England in 1970.

McLaren's widow, Patty McLaren-Brickett, and daughter Amanda announced the plans for the film in NZ at the weekend, flanked by an NZ government minister and school friend of McLaren, Jim Anderton,  Sir Jack Brabham, Emerson Fittipaldi (who won his two F1 world titles in McLarens), and associates of the late McLaren. Mrs McLaren-Brickett and Amanda, a nurse, want Tom Cruise to play Bruce.

The script is being written but the film does not yet have a title and casting has not been decided. NZ studios will be used for production, McLaren contemporary Chris Amon will be an adviser, and special effects and filming icould start by the end of this year. Some of McLaren's original cars will be used for filming and some shooting could take place in Britain, the US, Monaco, Germany and France. The premiere is planned for early 2009.

McLaren drivers on the wagon
Kimi Raikkonen became well-known for some drinking indiscretions during his time at McLaren, and team boss Ron Dennis has banned his new driver line-up, dual world champion Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton, from alcohol, despite Johnnie Walker whiskey being one of the team's sponsors.

The only liquor Dennis wants his men touching this year is the champagne on the podium. "We don't see why drivers need to have even one drink in the course of a season," Dennis was quoted as saying by London's Mirror newspaper. Johnnie Walker's slogan for racing this year is: "Be a champion. Drink responsibly."

U-turn on Kimi the tank engine
Mario Illien, the man previously responsible for the Mercedes-Benz engines in the McLaren cars, was quoted last week saying Ferrari's new F1 car will need to be as strong as a tank because of the punishment Raikkonen will give it as Michael Schumacher's replacement.

Germany's Sport Bild reported Illien saying: "No one drives the machine harder, no one bangs it so hard lap after lap into the kerb. Ferrari will have to build Kimi a tank if they want to win the title with him."

Now Autosport.com quotes Illien saying: "I haven't spoken to anybody in the last few months about F1 and gave no interviews. Kimi is a great guy. I have great respect for him. He was a guy who you know would take things to the limit. He is a very committed guy. I see that as a good thing."

Fat cats face hip-pocket hit
Switzerland may be about to raise its taxes, which will be bad news for the likes of Swiss residents Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, who pay as little as US$60,000 a year despite their massive incomes. Under proposed changes they may have to pay twice as much. Tough.