There’s something about World Rally Cars and the island of Corsica that just ‘works.’ Put it down to the stunning scenery, vertiginous drops, infamously corner-heavy stages or the sheer weight of rallying history infused into the very rocks of the island, but the World Rally Championship would be a far poorer place without its annual trip to the middle of the Med.
It’s a location which just oozes rallying cool; a daunting rock, criss-crossed with famous stages with infamous names, not to mention the ever-present threat of very un-Med-like weather as and when the local gods of rain see fit, which can turn the Corsican tests into lethally slippy, concentration-sapping epics! It might be among the most picturesque stops on the FIA World Rally Championship tour, but the message is clear; underestimate the Linea Tour de Corse 2018 at your peril.
The Rally
It hasn’t even begun, and already the 2018 Tour de Corse has provided plenty to talk about, with a number of drivers pushing the ragged edge that bit too far and coming a cropper as a result – Guillaume De Mevieus, Takamoto Katsuta and Thierry Neuville all concluded their respective pre-event tests on the wrong side of the Armco. This year will see the crews tackle a smattering of classic Rally France highlights, though much of the route is totally different from this time last year, a legacy of its relocation to the town of Bastia. The 2018 Tour will visit iconic event set-pieces, including La Porta Chapel, the tip of the Cap Corse (the Northern tip of the island and an area not visited since 1995), before moving West on Sunday to take in many of the classic stages nestled around the rally’s traditional base, Ajaccio.
Weather and car setup go hand-in-hand on the France’s round of the World Rally Championship, the island’s location in the centre of the Mediterranean serving to make freak rain storms an ever present danger. When the heavens do open, Corsica’s already daunting stages become lethally difficult and the pock-marked tarmac turns to sheet-ice within minutes. The abrasive nature of the asphalt itself also has an impact on the cars and how they perform, with a high level of tyre degradation expected for the longer loops of stages – so watch out for plenty of shredded, decidedly second hand looking Michelins on Friday and Saturday in particular!
The Stages
Friday will see the WRC crews tackling a duo of stages new to many of them, with the 49km of La Porta to Valle di Rostino kicking things of in typically Corsican fashion, followed by a shorter run through the 13.5km of Piedigriggio to Pont de Castirla. Services at Bastia airport (the longest stretch of straight tarmac on the island) bookend repeat runs through the morning’s stages, giving a total competitive mileage of 125.16km.
Saturday, the longest day of the rally, sees the WRC regulars tackling a trio of stages twice; Cagano-Pino-Canari (35.6km), Desert de Agriates (15.4km) and Novella (17.3km), 136.9km of special stage miles in full.
The 2018 installment of the Tour de Corse will conclude with a pair of stages on the South Western side of the island, including Vero-Sarrola-Carcopino (a real monster at 55.1km) and the Power Stage – Penitencier de Coti-Chiavari (16.2km). The former isn’t merely an extended test by the standards of the modern WRC, it’s a long stage full stop – the longest on the Tour since 1986!
Source: The Checkered Flag Image: Credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool