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The 2XM World Rally Team drivers started the year with the WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo, producing an eye catching performace but ultimately falling prey to Monte Carlo's treacherous roads.
THE RALLY
The 2015 Rallyesim World Rally Championship season began the 18th of January with the immensely popular Rallye Monte-Carlo which proved to be a very big challenge for drivers as usual, featuring 189.5 competitive kilometers across 25 special stages through different surfaces such as tarmac, snow and ice, sometimes all of them on the same special stage. The rally was once again one of the biggest events of the year seeing an incredible ammount of 681 participants starting the event, showing that despite it's difficulty, Monte-Carlo is still one of the competitor's favourite events.
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Tyre choice was the decisive factor for many of the performances on this long test. 2XM WRT's Manuel De Samaniego made the right call as started day 1 with a set of tarmac intermediate tires, later switching for dry tires for the remaining stages of the day despite the snowy conditions on some stages, this proved to be the best choice as after putting some respectable performaces in the first 3 special stages, he stormed into the lead after setting a spectacular time with dry tires on the icy stage 4 he later won stage 6 by going 6.86 seconds faster than everyone else. The trend continued through day 1 as he also set fastest times on stages 8, 11 and 12 ending the day with a lead of 18.27 seconds. Michael Nelson suffered much different fortune as he was forced to retire from the day after sliding into a tree after loosing control after a jump near the end of stage 1.
Day 2 started in similar fashion as Manuel kept near the top of the timesheets as he went second fastest on stages 13 and 15 and third on stage 4 always staying within a second of the scratch time, eventually seeing a lead of 25.80 seconds before stage 16, which proved to be a decisive stage for the rally's outcome as then leader Manuel was pushing his DS3 WRC to the max when he came across an icy section of the stage and understeered into a tree, this killed the engine immediately and forced him to retire for the rest of day 2, Mike was consistent throughout the day as he set discrete times and made sure to bring the car home after his day 1 misfortunes.
There wasn't much to be gained on the final day of the rally as both 2XM WRT's drivers suffered heavy time penalties caused from their retirements on previous days, Michael Nelson started the last loop of 3 stages with a set of dry tires, hoping to benefit from dry conditions on stage 24 to set a fast time, the other 2 stages were re-runs of stage 13 which saw wet conditions throughout the rally, this combination of stages meant that there was no best tire choice and a compromise had to be made on some stages, the dry tires proved to be effective on stages 23 and 24 but heavy rain on stage 25 rendered them useless as conditions became even more slippery than on the first pass, Mike continued his run of consistent safe times to finish the day and the rally in 151st possition while Manuel suffered from back luck once again as after going 5th fastest through stage 23 his car suffered a critical failure which led him to retire for the last 2 stages, he finished the rally in a lowly 221st possition.
QUOTES
Michael Nelson: “ For me, it was a very mixed rally.
I put in a lot of practice, and retired on the very first stage of the rally. My car landed awkwardly after a bump and sent the rear spinning, eventually coming to a stop... against a tree. It was absolutely gutting after putting in so much practice. For the next two legs I just took things very slowly, so as not to incur another DNF, a very casual pace, and generally taking conservative tyres too.
Although disappointing, there are positives to take away. My pace improved a lot throughout the practice, and I think my times could have been competitive had I not DNFed. I'm very much looking forward to Sweden.
Well done to all those who took part and finished the rally, it was an incredibly tough one.”
Manuel De Samaniego: “I was very surprised to have been on top after the first day and I'm very satisfied with my pace with the DS3 WRC.
I can't say I'm not dissapointed for the accident but I leave Monte-Carlo with a lot of hope for future events as I know what we're capable of doing.
Thanks to the championship organizers and thanks to the team for the great car they gave us for our first event.”
RESULTS - TOP 10
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| Official classification |
