18WRC DRIVERS/CO-DRIVERS WILL SWAP SEATSDrivers and codriverswill berequired to swapseats in a bold andinnovative way to addeven more excitementto the FIA WorldRally Championship,it was revealed byWRC Promoter.The ‘Swap SeatSpecial Stage’ willmake it compulsoryfor all teams tochange seats for onestage at every futureround. It brings theenticing prospect ofworld championdriverOtt Tänak reading thepace notes as MartinJärveoja steers theirHyundai i20, whileJulien Ingrassia musttake the wheel of aToyota Yaris asSébastien Ogierfocuses on thedelivery of notes. Itwill be up to thedriver and co-driverto decide on whichstage they wish toswitch. If theychoose the Wolf PowerStage, the bonuspoints gained will bedoubled.RallyE B'dos:Top 3 OverallJeremy Gonsalves (BAR )Dominic Ollivierre (SVG)Richard Bliss (GBR)Top 3 Wheel Class overallJeremy Gonsalves (BAR)Dominic Ollivierre (SVG)Richard Bliss (GBR)Top 3 Controller ClassLiam Carfrae (GBR)Terris Scott (BAR)Angelo Doyle (BAR)Top 3 Sunday Cup 2020Richard Jordan (GBR)Matthew Staffner (BAR)Renaldo Carrington (BAR)
The corner that killed Group BOn 2 May 1986, HenriToivonen, his codriverSergio Cresto,and Group B rallycars died on thiscorner. To look at itout of context, it’sa treacherous lefthanderwith a drop sovast the sun can’tmake its way throughthe trees to thebottom. But framed bythe Tour de Corse,the‘rally of 10,000corners’ (actuallycloser to 20,000),it’s relativelyinnocuous. The drop’snot vertical. It’ssweeping, notaggressive. It’s evenrelatively wellsurfaced. Thingshave changeddramatically sincethe fatal crash,though.The D18 used to bepotted and uneven, andthe corner, 7km fromCorte, has grown a lowwall and the memorialstone you can see above.Even the profile’smilder - look behind thewall you can make outthe 90-degree bendtightly hugging theoverhanging cliff thatclaimed so muchof motorsport. But howand why the Lancia DeltaS4 left the road remainsone of motorsport’smysteries. There wereno race marshals orspectators nearby, andthe only video footagewas shot too far awayfrom the accident todraw any meaningfulconclusions. Toivonenhad retired with enginefailure on Rally Sweden,missed the Safari leg,and with no points fromPortugal after the racewas abandoned followingan accident that killedthree spectators, hadhis work cut out.Fellow drivers andteammates claim he wasfeeling unwell, but thathadn’t affected hisperformance on theopening day. That said,his Delta S4 wasreportedly an awkward,vicious car. Like the037, it had a spaceframe tubular chassiswith a fully detachabletwo-piece compositebody, as well as longtraveldouble wishbonesuspension front andrear. Shackled to anAbarth-designedsupercharged and turbocharged 500bhp 1.8-litreengine, it could hit60mph in just overtwo seconds. But theKevlar-reinforcedplastic body wasextremely fast burning.And, like the rest ofthe cars, the gravelguard that would protectthe alloy fuel tank onunpaved rallies had beenremoved to save weight.When it left the road,the tank was pierced by