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2008 World Rally Championship season
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The 2008 World Rally Championship season is the 36th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consists of 15 rallies and began on January 24th, with the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.
Rule changes
The running order for the first day is governed by championship position, with the championship leader running first on the road. For every other day of a rally, the order is decided by the previous end of day classification (with the leader on classification running first). The term 'leg' has been replaced by 'day' in order to sound more understandable. Extra 10 minute service prior to the finish podium has been added, intended to allow the service park to remain an attraction until the end of the event.[1] With the switch to Pirelli tyres, tyre mousse (along with all anti-deflation devices) has been banned, and fewer compounds are available. Also the teams aren't allowed to modify tyres by themselves (eg. by making additional cuts) anymore.[2][3] At the first event of the season, the available tires were the soft slick DS tire (Pirelli PZero[4]), the WX snow tire without studs, and the WX snow tire with studs (both variants of Pirelli Sottozero[4]).[5] The same snow tyres were used in Sweden as well. Later on loose surface tyres were introduced: Pirelli Scorpion, available in two variants - hard compound for abrasive surfaces, such as roads in Mexico or Greece, and soft one, for more muddy stages as seen on Welsh event.[4] Tire walls have been strengthened in order to endure long, rough gravel stages often full of sharp rocks. The tread on Scorpions is asymmetric and directional, as it has proven more efficient during the tests.[4]
Calendar
The 2008 season includes 15 rallies, which is one less than the 2007 season. Rally Norway, Rally Portugal and Rally Ireland were dropped from the calendar for 2008. Rally of Turkey returned to the schedule, and Jordan Rally is part of the calendar for the first time. Rally Australia was planned to make a return after being absent in 2007, but the organizers submitted a request to the FIA to delay the event's return to the schedule until 2009.[6]
The events also part of the Production car World Rally Championship are Sweden, Argentina, Greece, Turkey, Finland, New Zealand, Japan and Britain.[7] The seven rallies also on the Junior World Rally Championship schedule are Mexico, Jordan, Italy, Finland, Germany, Spain and France.[8]
Teams and drivers
The teams and drivers for the 2008 season are as follows:
Footnotes:
^ † Only drivers nominated to score points are given fixed numbers.
^ a: Khalid Al Qassimi will compete in 10 rounds for BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.
^ b: Stobart Ford plan to run Duval, H. Solberg and Wilson at every round possible (see c and d), nominating one each time for manufacturer points, depending on the rally surface.
^ c Duval's starts depend mostly on his budget - he is scheduled to start in Monte Carlo, Spain and Germany and aiming to start in six rounds, mostly tarmac, including Jordan Rally.[10]
^ d: Henning Solberg is supposed to take part in 7 rounds scoring for Munchi's Ford team,[11] including Mexico.[12]
^ e: Munchi's Ford plan to compete in just 10 of the 15 rallies.
^ f: Barry Clark will be nominated to score points for Munchi's team in Turkey.[13]
^ g: Aris Vovos has been chosen to score points for Munchi's Ford in 2008 Acropolis Rally.[14]
Events
The Rally Finland is notable this year for having dropped its famous Ouninpohja stage. This has been done for safety reasons, however this is likely to be a huge disappointment for race fans.[15]
Standings
Drivers' championship
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| Colour |
Result |
| Gold |
Winner |
| Silver |
2nd place |
| Bronze |
3rd place |
| Green |
Finished, in points |
| Blue |
Finished, no points |
| Purple |
Did not finish (Ret) |
| Black |
Disqualified (DSQ) |
| White |
Did not start (DNS) |
| Blank |
Did not participate |
| Injured (INJ) |
| Excluded (EX) |
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Manufacturers' championship
Sources
- ^ "FIA reveals regulation changes.". Crash.net (2007-10-24). Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ "New tyre rules good for WRC, says Mikko.". Crash.net (2008-01-15). Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ "Loeb: Tyre changes create a lot of unknowns.". Crash.net (2008-01-04). Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ a b c d "Third new Pirelli WRC tyre makes debut on Rally Mexico". WRC.com (2008-02-15). Retrieved on 2008-02-16.
- ^ "Preview: Rallye Monte Carlo - Pt. 1.". Crash.net (2008-01-23). Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ "Australia return delayed, Mexico gets call." (2007-10-24). Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ "PWRC: 28 to battle it out in '08" (2008-02-13). Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
- ^ "JWRC: 16 competitors to contest Junior series" (2008-02-13). Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
- ^ "Official: Clark to do three events with Focus.", Crash.net (2008-02-28). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
- ^ Lach, Łukasz (2008-02-05). "Focus WRC in exchange for Duval's outings" (in Polish), Rajdy.v10.pl. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ "Henning to Munchis (Henning do Munchis)" (in Polish), RallyOnline.pl (2008-01-25). Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
- ^ "First event of year for Munchi's, Villagra.", Crash.net (2008-02-25). Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
- ^ Wilkins, Rob (2008-03-14). "Q&A: Barry Clark - EXCLUSIVE.". Crash.net. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
- ^ Lach, Łukasz (2008-03-19). "Munchi's Ford will have a fifth driver." (in Polish), Rajdy.v10.pl. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
- ^ "What's on Dave - 2008 WRC Calendar". What's on Dave. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
External links
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