Whilst Europe gears up for winter, Australia is heading for summer and average temperatures are expected to be between 11 degrees and 22 degrees Celsius.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Marcus Gronholm took a 10 point bite out Sebastien Loeb’s 35-point lead in the 2006 FIA World Rally drivers' championship after winning the Rally of Turkey two weeks ago. As such, the Finn’s slim-hopes of taking his third drivers’ title remain alive and he will get a chance to reduce the gap further this weekend, as the Frenchman is still recovering from his mountain bike accident. Currently 25 points separate the two with three rounds to go.
In the manufacturers’,
BP Ford now lead after their 1-2 finish in Turkey, eight points up on Kronos
Citroen.
In other WRC news, the FIA confirmed the provisional calendar for 2008 last week, with Jordan set to run its first ever WRC event.
Rally South Africa and Rally Poland could also be included for the first time in 2008, while the Cyprus Rally could get a re-call although only
one of these events will get the OK, subject to the inspection of their event in 2007.
Rally Australia and the Rally of Turkey meanwhile have both been given definite slots for 2008, after being left off the 2007 version - and as such '07 newcomers, Norway, Portugal and Ireland will all be dropped, as will Rally Mexico, which joined the WRC fold back in 2004.
News from the Manufacturers' teams:
Manufacturer 1.
Kronos Total Citroen WRT:
[Xavier Pons, car #1 and
Daniel Sordo, car #2]
Kronos have opted to nominate Xavier Pons and Daniel Sordo in Australia and for only the second time this season they will not run a third car.
