MITSUBISHI MOTORS MOTOR SPORTS OFFCIAL BLOG

PWRC#5 Rally d'Italia Sardegna

Fri, 29 May 2009 17:37:26 +0900

Armindo Araujo placed 3rd at PWRC Round -5 at WRC Round-6 "Rally d'Italia Sardegna"

PWRC Round -5 "Rally d'Italia Sardegna" was held during 22nd to 24th May ,2009 at Sardegna Island, Mediterranean Sea located west south of Rome, Italy and Armindo Araujo (Ralliart Italy) who aims to get PWRC championship with Lancer Evolution placed 3rd and got a precious 6 points.

The rally had a very tough gravel stages. Armindo Araujo chased to the top group from the beginning stages and once placed 1st of PWRC at SS8 in Day-2 showing very good driving. However, at the succeeding SS9 he suffered a rear suspension trouble and then he was obliged to keep a patient driving ,but finally he placed 3rd and got a precious 6 points.

The next round is Acropolis Rally during 12th to 14th June, 2009.

PWRC Final Result through Day 1 to Day 3
Pos. No Driver Car. time

1 150 Nasser Al-Attiyah Subaru Impreza 4:20.39.4

2 146 Patrik Sandell Skoda FabiaS2000 +1.5

3 147 Armindo Araujo Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +3:44.1

4 145 Patrik Flodin Subaru Impreza +6:35.5

5 149 Eyvind Brynildsen Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +13:58.5

6 137 Frederic Sauvan Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +26:35.1

7 134 Gianluca Linari Subaru Impreza +27:31.3

8 138 Gabor Mayer Subaru Impreza +27:31.9

2009 APRC 2nd "Rally Queensland"

Wed, 13 May 2009 18:59:33 +0900

KATSU firstly participated in this season of 2009 FIA Asia Pacific Rally

Championship (APRC) 2nd Round "Rally Queensland" with Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and placed 2nd.

2009 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) 2nd Round "Rally Queensland" was held during 8th to 10th of May,2009 around Brisbane in Queensland State of Eastern Australia. This rally was well known as very difficult course which drivers have to run out on hard gravel road surface and to past continuous crests with high speed.

Though it was estimated that local drivers have full advantages, Katsu (Team MRF Tire) showed his real ability (1999 APRC Champion and Overall 2nd with 2 times win of 2008 APRC) with Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and splendidly placed 2nd.

2009 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) 2nd Round "Rally Queensland"

(Tentative result at the finish of Rally)

Place Driver Rally Car Time

1 Cody Crocker Subaru Imprezza 2.22:48.8

2 Katsu Taguchi Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ＋1:21.7

3 Emma Gilmore Subaru Imprezza　　　　　　　　＋6.24.4

4 Gauray Gill Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Ⅹ ＋7:34.9

5 Brian Gtreen Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +15:18.8　

6 Hayden Paddon Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +29:59.1

APRC Calendar 2009

1. 09-10 APR New Caledonia

2. 08-10 MAY Queensland (AU)

3. 06-07 JUN Whangarei (NZ)

4. 11-12 JUL Hokkaido(JP)

5. 15-16 AUG Malaysia

6. 03-04 OCT Indonesia

7. 14-15 NOV China

WRC#5 Rally Argentina

Fri, 08 May 2009 11:05:57 +0900

Rally de Argentina

Country:Argentina

Date:24-22/04/2009

PWRC#4 Rally Argentina

Sat, 02 May 2009 01:05:39 +0900

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X has placed the 2nd of the Rally Argentina as the best of Evolutions of the　ｒally!

The performance of Evolution X has been improving

Argentinean Marcos Ligato (Tango Rally team) drove the Lancer Evolution X and got 2nd place of the

tough Rally Argentina.

During 23rd to 26th of April,2009 ,PWRC Round-4 "Rally Argentina " was held around the town of

Villa Carlos Paz, south of the Cordoba province. Argentine.

The 2nd　at the rally is best result for Lancer Evolution X. in this season. It's shows Lancer Evolution X

has been improving its performance and the generation change has been accelerating.

Eyvind Brynildsen(Norway, Team Ralliart New Zealand) got 4 points as 5th in this rally with

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 and kept his series position ( 4th.).

After Rally Argentina, Armind Araujo (Lancer Evolution9,Team Ralliart Italy) is leading the 2009 PWRC.

PWRC Final Result through Day 1 to Day 3
Pos. No Driver Car. time

1 150 Nasser Al-Attiyah Subaru Impreza　4:20:51.9

2 160 Marcos Ligato Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +2:12.9

3 133 Toshihiro Arai Subaru Impreza +6:36.0

4 144 Spyros Pavlides Subaru Impreza +24:18.5

5 149 Eyvind Brynildsen Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +31:58.0

6 138 Gabor Mayer　Subaru Impreza +40:04.4

PWRC#3 Rally Portugal

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:58:28 +0900

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution achieved 1-2-3 finish which dominated the podium!
Winner Armindo Araujo has upgraded the top ranking of　Production Car World Rally Championship.

Portuguese Armindo Araujo(Team Ralliart Italy) has won in triumph and has become the point leader at a bound.

During 2nd to 5th of April,2009 ,PWRC Round-3 “Rally de Portugal” was held at Faro in southern Portugal and Portuguese Armindo Araujo(Team Ralliart Italy) has cleverly driven Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution on 9 during the difficult rally on narrow and dust-covered road with high speed. As the result, he has achieved the first win of PWRC which pushed him the top-ranking of PWRC at a bound.

Meanwhile, Martin Prokop (Czech) has placed at 2nd with Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 as well as Armind Araujo’s and Eyvind Brynildsen(Norway Team Ralliart New Zealand) has placed at 3rd with Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 which has dominated the podium. From this rally, ”Pirelli Star Driver” series which is the bring-up program for young drivers promoted by the tire manufacturer Pirelli and FIA has started. Under this program,5 units of Lancer Evolution 10 were vitally driven by young drivers together with strong drivers who participated from all over the world and their drive has impressed the high speed performance.

PWRC Final Result through Day 1 to Day 3
Pos. No Driver Car. time
1 147 A. ARAÚJO Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 15:31.6
2 131 M. PROKOP Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +1:07.1
3 149 E. BRYNILDSEN Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution +1:13.1
4 150 N. AL ATTIYAH Subaru Impreza N14 +10:37.6
5 62 J. WILLIAMS Mitsubishi Lancer EvolutionX +17:19.2
6 65 M. TAPPER Mitsubishi Lancer EvolutionX +25:49.6
7 134 G. LINARI Subaru Impreza Sti +28:07.7
8 148 G. SINGH GILL Subaru Impreza N14 +30:53.7
9 64 M. SEMERAD Mitsubishi Lancer EvolutionX +45:01.1
10 63 J. NIKARA Mitsubishi Lancer EvolutionX +51:55.1

WRC#4 Rally Portugal

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:51:37 +0900

Rally de Portugal
Country:Portugal
Date:02-05/04/2009

Northern Forest Baja 2009

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:20:09 +0900

Northern Forest Baja 2009
Country:Russia
Date:11-14 February

IRC#2 Rally Internacional de Curitiba

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:47:39 +0900

Rally Internacional de Curitiba
Country:Brazil
Date:05-07 March

IRC#1 Rallye Monte Carlo

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:47:02 +0900

Rallye Monte Carlo
Country:Monaco
Date:21-24 January

WRC#3 CYPRUS RALLY

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:35:25 +0900

MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION SETS CYPRUS RALLY PACE ON TOUGH PRODUCTION ROUND

ARMINDO ARAUJO / MIGUEL RAMALHO

March 12-15
CYPRUS RALLY

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was, once again, the quickest of the conventional Group N rally cars on the Cyprus Rally, which ended in Limassol this afternoon. Armindo Araujo (Portugal) dominated the latest round of the Production Car World Rally Championship, but just missed out on the lead after rival Patrik Sandell (Sweden) passed him in his Super 2000 Skoda on the event’s penultimate test.

Araujo led the event from the first stage in an incredible drive of domination on the mixture of asphalt and gravel roads in the Troodos Mountains. Despite having to deal with the first mixed surface round of the World Rally Championship and the notoriously fickle weather conditions in the mountains in spring, Araujo delivered his Lancer Evolution home second in the Production Car World Rally Championship standings.

Running on gravel-specification tires on the opening day’s six stages forced the fastest rally drivers in the world to compromise their style, but Araujo coped best of all. He was fastest on all but one of the Friday stages, racing in to a half-minute lead. He then underlined his ability by continuing that strong drive as the event turned to the rough dirt roads on Saturday, where he maintained his lead for the duration of the second day.

"It’s been an incredible rally," said Araujo at the finish. "The fight has been so tough all of the time. We came to this event after a very good test on the asphalt in Italy. I was very happy with the way the car was set up and we were able to drive quickly to open the lead on Friday."

Araujo admitted heavy overnight rain on Friday had caused him a few problems on Saturday morning, but nothing he and the Mitsubishi couldn’t deal with.

"The weather made the morning stages really slippery," he said. "I don’t think we had the perfect set up for these roads, but at service we made some changes and the car was perfect again. The mud was incredible, though. All of the time, the grip on the road was changing so much. On one corner, everything was nice and then in the next, it was deep mud. It was hard work."

Four Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions finished in the top 10 of the Group N cars on what was, once again, one of the toughest rounds of the World Rally Championship.

Andis Neiksans (Latvia) collected useful points by bringing his Mitsubishi home in fifth place after a largely trouble-free event. Neiksans concurred with Araujo’s feelings about how tough the event had been, adding: "Even today, the stages were so long and really bumpy. It’s been a very tough event, but the Mitsubishi has made it."

In the overall event, Sebastien Loeb (France) collected his 50th World Rally Championship win in is Citroen, with Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) second and Citroen privateer Petter Solberg (Norway) third.