The Corsican weather can be as dramatic as the landscape. Within an hour bright sunshine can give way to heavy rain as warm sea air meets the cool mountain breeze. There can be heavy localised showers – it’s not unusual for drivers to leave the service park in dry conditions and come across rain at the stage start or during the stage, so weather crews have a very important role.
This year’s event will be busier than usual, including 16 special stages as opposed the 12 used last year, while more than half of the route will be completely new for all the crews.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Marcus Gronholm saw his lead in the 2007 FIA World Rally drivers' championship cut following the event in Spain last weekend. With Sebastien Loeb taking the victory in Catalunya and Gronholm only finishing third, the Finn's cushion was reduced from 10 points to 6.
Mikko Hirvonen meanwhile remained third in the standings, while Daniel Sordo moved up to fourth outright, with
Petter Solberg dropping to fifth.
In the Manufacturers' championship there was no change at the top - although the
BP Ford WRT did see its massive lead over
Citroen reduced slightly from 46 points to 39.
With just days separating the Rally Catalunya and the Rallye de France there have been no major news developments in between.
News from the Manufacturers' teams:
Citroen Total WRT:
[
Sebastien Loeb, car #1 and
Daniel Sordo, car #2]
Loeb set to cut gap further?
Sebastien Loeb will start the Rallye de France as the favourite. After cutting Marcus Gronholm's lead in the drivers’ championship back to six points in Spain, Seb will want to take another chunk out of the Finn’s cushion come the finish this Sunday.
Furthermore given he has won all the asphalt events to date this season he is looking very strong.
"We started as favourites in Spain and we ended up winning and achieving our objective," he noted. "We took points off Marcus but we are still behind in the championship.
