Motorsport on TV - 4-7 March

[Galahad]

A double dose of varied four-wheel action from the Americas this week.

Beginning tomorrow, the second round of the World Rally Championship visits the dusty, rock-strewn gravel roads of Mexico. Eighty-seven-times champion Sebastien Loeb will be looking to reassert his authority over Ford's Mikko Hirvonen, after the latter scored a strong win in the opening round in Sweden. All eyes will no doubt be on Kimi Raikkonen, however, as he seeks a clean run and possibly his first points for the Citroen Junior Team.

Dave will be offering their usual paltry half hour of highlights on Sunday evening.

Meanwhile a few thousand miles to the south another group of family saloons will be involved in a rather different squabble as the FIA World Touring Car Championship makes its seasonal debut in Curitiba, Brazil. The WTCC is looking distinctly different this year, with champions SEAT having withdrawn and BMW reducing its effort from five cars to two (for Guernsey's Andy Priaulx and Brazilian Augusto Farfus). Chevrolet have, to their credit, continued with three works entries as before, former champion Yvan Muller replacing Nicola Larini alongside veteran Alain Menu and Rob Huff. A phalanx of independent cars will boost grids, with reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini running in a privateer SEAT, albeit with some surreptitious support from the factory in the form of staff and setup data.

Eurosport are continuing with their full service of live qualifying, warm-up and races this season, though channel may always be subject to change (and pointless advertising breaks are a given). The weekend runs as follows:

Saturday 6 March
19:00-19:45 WTCC Qualifying live (Eurosport)

Sunday 7 March
13:15-13:45 WTCC Raceday warm-up live (Eurosport 2)
17:00-18:15 WTCC Race 1 live (Eurosport)
18:00-18:30 World Rally highlights - Mexico (Dave)
18:15-19:15 WTCC Race 2 live (Eurosport)

http://www.livesportontv.com/motor-sports

[Brogan]

Thanks GM.

I've added those events to the Calendar

[Galahad]

Thanks Bro

[Brogan]

I'm going to make an effort to follow the WTCC this year, I was never able to catch much of it last year.

[Galahad]

Well, with the five-car teams gone, hopefully team orders won't be as much of an issue and we can concentrate more on the racing.

I might even prefer it to BTCC...shame on me!

[Galahad]

In Mexico, Petter Solberg leads at the midway service on Day 1. Citroen's Sébastien's follow, but unusually, in the wrong order.

http://www.wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=40 ... y=&stage=4

And Kimi's in trouble again - but not his fault this time. His engine gave in on Stage 2, costing him 35 minutes(!) Fortunately co-driver Kaj Lindstrom was able to effect a repair and they have continued, but will have to put this one down to experience and drive for a finish.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81877

[Galahad]

After all that build-up I missed the WTCC coverage!

Yvan Muller led a Chevrolet 1-2-3 in race one while Gabriele Tarquini used his diesel torque from the lights to take a win in the reversed-grid race two from a grid position of fifth.

In Mexico, reigning champion Sébastien Loeb got his championship back on track with a dominant victory. Petter Solberg and Sébastien Ogier completed an all-Citroen podium.

Kimi Raikkonen rolled out on Friday afternoon, the car too damaged to continue. Prior to his accident he had been setting times in and around the top eight.

[Speshal]

Dave will be offering their usual paltry half hour of highlights on Sunday evening.

They usually do an hour and I was mystified as to why it was only half an hour until I watched it and they explained that as Mexico is 6 hours behind the UK the rally hadn't actually finished by 6.30 so they had another half hour at 10.30p.m