championship positions in Ireland
The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, will be represented on the bumpy asphalt stages of Ireland next week, for the penultimate round of the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Ireland. Abu Dhabi is partner to the reigning WRC champion, BP-Ford World Rally Team, as it seeks to consolidate its lead in the Manufacturers’ championship, as well as Marcus Grönholm’s advantage in the race for the Drivers’ title.
In addition, Abu Dhabi’s rally ambassador, Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi will again be driving the third Abu Dhabi-branded Ford Focus World Rally Car, hot off the back of the penultimate round of the Middle East Rally Championship. Al Qassimi leads the MERC by nine points with two events still to run, including this weekend’s Rally of Lebanon.
Heading for Ireland, the Abu Dhabi-partnered BP-Ford World Rally Team has a 34-point lead in the Manufacturers’ championship, having dominated the 2007 series since the third round, Rally Norway in March. A combination of consistency and reliability has paid dividends for the team as it continues its remarkable unbroken run of 90 points-scoring results and targets its second manufacturer title in two years.
It is possible that Ford could clinch the title in Ireland if it scores three more points to add to its tally and this would be a clear demonstration that the marque is the perfect partner for the emirate of Abu Dhabi in the WRC. The relationship has already reaped huge rewards in raising awareness of Abu Dhabi as a world-class destination, beginning with Marcus Grönholm’s historic win in Finland, the first event for the ground-breaking partnership.
Both of the team’s nominated drivers, Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen have competed in Ireland already this year on national events, to gain experience of the roads and a base set-up for their Ford Focus RS WRCs. Grönholm won the Galway International Rally while Hirvonen also competed in Ireland but was slowed by a puncture on-stage.
Grönholm arrives in Ireland with a four-point lead in the Drivers’ title race and his experience of Irish stages will inevitably aid in his objective to claim the Drivers’ title before retiring from the sport at the end of the season.
Deputy Director of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, the body driving the emirate’s involvement in the WRC, Ahmed Hussein, said; “As the team enters the final stage of the season, confidence is high. It is always easier to lead than to chase, and with the experience in the team, and the hard work and dedication we have seen all season, we’re hopeful the team will claim both titles to cap an amazing debut year for Abu Dhabi and BP-Ford World Rally Team’s historic partnership.”
Abu Dhabi will also be present in the Middle East Rally Championship this weekend (9-11 November), as Team Abu Dhabi driver Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi continues his campaign for the 2007 MERC title in Lebanon. The penultimate round takes place on Lebanon’s narrow and bumpy asphalt roads and the Emirati driver approaches the event with a nine-point lead in the series.
Even though the Lebanese stages seem quite similar to those in Ireland, Al Qassimi realises his final WRC outing of 2007 will be another new challenge for him. “As with every WRC event I have done this year, Ireland will be another completely new challenge,” said Abu Dhabi’s rally ambassador. “And as before, the objective will be to establish a pace and learn how to adapt to the particular challenges of this event.
“From what I understand of the stages in Ireland, they will be narrow, bumpy and with lots of surface changes. So in that respect, they will be quite similar to the roads in Lebanon; more similar in fact than they are to say Catalunya. When I arrived in Lebanon, it was wet, as it is likely to be in Ireland and I realised very quickly just how slippery the roads can be in those circumstances, so that is already useful experience.
“Of course, Ireland will be a new event for all the drivers and while that may seem, on the face of it, to give me an advantage, you have to remember that they have considerably more experience of World Rally Cars than I do and my last outing will have been in a Group N car
“But this is all part of the challenge which has been set me by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, as I act as its rally ambassador and represent the emirate’s values; teamwork, integrity and respect.”Ireland itself is no stranger to rallying; the nation has the highest number of World Rally Cars per capita and Irish rally drivers are exceptionally competitive, so the WRC regulars can expect fierce pressure from the locals. The roads that make up the stages are narrow and often bumpy with frequent surface changes, meaning that drivers will be constantly learning the event and its nature. Rally Ireland is joining the WRC for the first time this year and is a cross-border exercise, across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It has run twice previously as a Candidate event before being adopted into the WRC calendar for 2007 and is the last of this season’s asphalt events.
The 2007 Rally Ireland begins with a superspecial around the Stormont Castle in Belfast on the evening of Thursday 15 November. Due to the distance between Belfast and the rally’s host town of Sligo on the west coast of Ireland, Thursday’s activities have all been moved earlier, with shakedown now starting at 07.00hrs and the FIA pre-event press conference taking place at 12.00hrs. The three days will see a total of 20 stages contested, with three loops on Friday, comprising nine timed tests. Saturday sees three stages each run twice while Sunday uses four separates stages before the winning crew is expected to mount the podium at 14.20hrs in Sligo. Ireland is GMT. .
