Rallying

Phil: I admit, in my younger days I was every bit as much a fan of rallying as I was (and still am) of F1.

But that was in the glory days of Kankunnen, Sainz, McRae and Makkinen, when rallying was on terrestrial TV, and before it became more than a little predictable, with Sebastien Loeb's unbroken run of eight world championships. I haven't watched a rally in nearly a decade, but I searched out BBC Wales' coverage of the Wales Rally GB online.

The rally, the last this WRC season, was actually won by Ford's no 2 Jari-Matti Latvala, in a Fiesta (the new formula restricts engine capacity to 1.6 litres - gone are the days of turbocharged Lancia Deltas and Subaru Imprezas) after all his main rivals, including Loeb, dropped out. Among the retirements was a very familiar name - none other than 2007 F1 champion, Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen, who may be on his way back to F1 after an unimpressive 10th place in this year's championship, featured but briefly in the coverage, a shot of him standing by his 'parked' Citroen DS3 - parked in a ditch on a Welsh forest track with a knackered radiator.

He was holding an A4 piece of laminated card with the word 'OK' in green writing, presumably a safety measure designed to inform later drivers there was no need to stop.

I wonder what the one with brown writing on says?

Not much to say

Phil: I didn't watch quali as we can't get digital TV at home, and neither have we yet been connected to the internet (for technical reasons - let's just say Virgin are even slower than their cars would lead you to believe) so I'm currently blogging in a private corner in the library, behind the Mills and Boon naff romantic novels. So I have only just learned that it's an all Red Bull front row with Vettel on pole, but I can't say I'm surprised. In my view Vettel is showing far and away the most potential of any driver in the field, thus far this season. The question on everyone's lips is whether Adrian Newey's car can prove as consistently reliable as it is consistently fast. Speaking of the car, not only does Vettel use the word 'baby' too much, he also gives his cars retro soft porn names: this year's apparently is 'Luscious Liz'.

Further down the grid, Rosberg in fourth has once again outqualified his illustrious teammate. When Schumacher says that his comeback is going according to plan, it really rather depends what the plan is. If it's to drive some more grands prix and have a nice time, then he's probably right. Kimi Raikkonen would probably say his debut WRC season is also going to plan, although I've no idea how he is actually getting on (there are, however, certainly more opportunities for unscheduled comfort breaks in rallying). But back to Schumi. If, as he also contends, he is still in the running for the title, being tenth in the world championship standings and ninth on the grid in China, then I for one would dispute that. His comeback is still going better than Nigel Mansell's, who had a tenth and a DNF after the third race in 1995 (Schumi has a sixth, a tenth and a DNF), but that's hardly a benchmark. I would also agree with my co-blogger that the Mercedes isn't a championship-winning car - it's certainly no better than the fourth best car on the grid.

If anyone's bothered, a visit to Wikipedia reveals that Raikkonen was eighth in the Jordan Rally two weeks ago, which gives him four points in the drivers' championship. The WRC looks every bit as predictable as F1 was in Schumi's heyday, with Sébastien Loeb still thrashing the pants off everyone.

It could be a year for champions called Sebastian. And for Luscious Liz.