Petter better?

The plot thickens on this story and I’m still not sure what to believe.

Earlier this week I wrote this post.

Unconfirmed reports from a Norwegian newspaper (see here) were stating that Petter had contracted Legionella during Rally Cyprus.

The funny thing is no one else was reporting it, no not even the WRC website.

Yeah, I was a bit confused too.

Well another Norwegian site is now reporting that Petter’s condition is improving, he’s had treatment and will be competiting in Rally Argentina next weekend.

Oh well, at least we know he’s better, sort of and hopefully the man himself will be able to shed some light himself on what’s been going on come next weekend.

Anyhoo, he was testing an Abarth S2000 last week so things can’t be that dire.

Weekly round-up 16th March to 22nd March

• Rally Portugal boasts the biggest entry list of the championship to date……..75 crews are set to take part, exciting news for fans.
• Prodrive has revealed the Impreza WRC2008 that will be used by Marcus Gronholm on Rally Portugal. It’s very white, looks a bit like a Ford kitcar and it’s very bare.
• Petter Solberg hasn’t had much time to celebrate since his podium position on Rally Cyprus – Hollywood seems to be showing his age and isn’t the party animal we once knew. As soon as he got back home to Monaco he went straight to bed feeling rather unwell and hasn’t left it since! Too much excitement to handle!

Weekly round-up 9th March – 15th March

It’s all about Cyprus this week…..

• Hirvonen finished Cyrpus in second place to Loeb. Bad times you may say but he finished a respectable 27 secs behind Loeb. You may think this is far from respectable but considering on the last Cyprus he finished a whole 5mins behind Loeb it’s quite decent.
• The Munchis team had a solid start to their slightly delayed season opener with Federico Villagra finishing in 7th place.
• Sebastien Ogier, bless him, was on course for a fantastic 5th place, that was until he crashed out 200m before the finishing line.
• Czech Republic’s Martin Prokop moved into the lead of the JWRC after winning his class.
• Patrik Sandell took his second win from two starts with the Red Bull Rally Team, extending his lead in the PWRC in the process.
• A bit of un-Cyrpiot news now – Sebastien Loeb has hit out at the proposed changes to the WRC saying that the most important thing is to put the security of the series first in the current economic climate. I know he’s said he would be far from keen to be involved in the sport if Super2000s are introduced but he must have had a bit of a rethink and has now said he’ll remain loyal to the sport whatever happens -All you Loeb haters out there, it seems you’ll have to put up with him for a bit longer yet.

Latest WRC standings

														Total
1.	S. LOEB	10	10	10										30
2.	M. HIRVONEN	6	8	8										22
3.	D. SORDO	8	4	5										17
4.	H. SOLBERG	5	5	0										10
5.	P. SOLBERG	-	3	6										9
6.	M. WILSON	2	2	4										8
7.	J-M LATVALA	0	6	0										6
8.	C. ATKINSON	4	-	-										4
9.	S. OGIER	3	0	R										3
10.	C. RAUTENBACH	0	R	3

Cyprus update

For anyone who’s interested, Loeb leads by a massive 22.5 seconds after Cyprus’s opening stages.

Surprise, surprise.

Sordo, Latvala, Hirvonen and P Solberg (!) follow respectively.

Henning out!

Weirdly, not many WRC news websites have picked up on this yet, well, except the WRC website but if they were slow on the uptake something would be a bit wrong.

Anyway, the big news is that Henning Solberg is out of Rally Cyprus already – he retired even before he got to the first stage on the road section from service.

What are these people thinking???? Maybe the driver was a Citroen fan…..

Apparently he crashed into the back of a truck which pulled out in front of him after indicating left but then turning right into Henning’s path.

I wonder how insurance details are dealt with in situations like this??? A Ford Focus RS WRC v a Toyota pickup, hmmmm.

Luckily no one was hurt but Henning was forced to pull out of the rally and we’re left waiting for news on whether the car is able to re-enter under SuperRally.

With Rally Cyprus being a mixed surface event it promised to be an exciting one from the off and it certainly is that. He’s a nice guy is Henning Solberg, just doesn’t have the best of luck sometimes does he, bless him.