ROUND 1 | MONTE CARLO | 16th - 19th OCT | EVENT OVER

WEATHER
Leg 1 - with the first leg running entirely in the night, it's looking like there will be some fog around, perhaps with the odd snow flurry.
Leg 2 - forecast to be a largely clear, pleasant day at present.
Leg 3 - much the same as leg 2, currently clear with the only hazard being the ice and snow patches on the road.

Stage list now available in the first post.

Rally is all set up to start at 6PM UK time on the 16th (tomorrow).

The excitement is kicking in! Over 50 entries now aswell, can't wait for this!

Can i just confirm that when there are more than one of the same stage, they are identical except the weather could be different? Cant wait for this to start

Correct John. Trying to keep some stages back, so in the event of a second season, we can run some different ones to this.

can you run all legs at once or is there a way to force it just leg 1 today?

It's all legs at once unfortunately. I keep badgering Codemasters to give us more options with the leagues, but they still haven't. The league system for DiRT is pretty terrible for anyone that wants to run a proper championship.

Alright, i was afraid that would be the case knowing how the leagues work. Cheers

In all honesty I don't mind that. Gives me more flexibility as to when I can do the stages
I know it's not realistic but still, has it's benefits.

For me this rally might be with a not fully upgraded car due to pure lazyness.

Good luck everyone! Watch out for the ice.

Made the typical rookie rally mistake and binned it on stage 1..... went trouble free from then on and made it to the end of leg 1 in just about one piece

goodluck everyone!

Trellet.net WRC team didn't have that good of a start, I have train to catch in 2 hours so I had to run league straight away.

Monte is my weakest rally too so I had pretty low expectations.
We'll see what happens when all of you get to do your runs. Good luck and have fun everybody.

So my worst round over , now we are looking forward to the rest of season

My run was kinda rubbish, made a load of mistakes and spun on the final stage. Don't know what I'm doing setup wise on these cars so I guessed at "Default will be fine" and just drove. Fingers crossed I get a point

Had a strange bug after I ran a shake down to tweak a damper change, because after that ONLY in stage 1 was my gearbox rekt barely able to change gear at all but managed to wring it's neck and bring it home for stage 2. Also in stage 1 for some reason I started behind the start position by some 10-20m and at a weird angle but after stage 1 everything was plain sailing.

Not sure if it's related to doing a shakedown but take care if you do, use one, because for me like I said it fooked my gearbox and start position in stage 1 I lost at least 30seconds from it all and that was ONLY 30seconds lost because I was driving to the absolute limit in whatever gear the gearbox felt like being able to manage at random intervals.

Stage 5 my wheel disconnected (had that problem just few days ago, thought i managed to fix it as it didnt happen again, until now...) and i got a puncture + a spin. Lucky nothing worse happened but had to limp to the finish with my rear right tyre on the rim.

Heres video of SS4 Pra d'Alart:

To summarize my stages: Flat out on Flats.

Considering i have no upgrades for my scuba yet and only tonight to do it, i didnt have much chance of being competitive, anyway.

Stage 1: Faultless run, still lost a healthy 30 secs on the lead because of upgrades.
Stage 2: Same as stage 1, only lost 18 seconds tho, pretty neat
Stage 3: Here's where the fun started, overcooked a left 4 in the beginning slightly, got onto the bank on the right, view went from normal to sky to asphalt and back to normal again, co-driver, unfazed by all the changes in scenery called out a flat front right, went on regardless, gazing trough my cracked windscreen, understeering whereever i could, lost about a minute on the lead
Stage 4: Did some repairs, then after the 2nd checkpoint i got my booty out to a wall, my co-driver, ever cool, mentioned something about things being flat (so much for the implants), last part was icy and incredible fun to drive, considering asking Dacia if the need me for the Andros thropy, by now all hope for a decent standings were lost, aim to not be last overall.
Stage 5: Scraped a mountainside slightly, another flat, now on the other end of the rear, again at the beginning of the rally, resumed my Andros rally application.
Stage 6: Fairly straightforward, pushed like mad while being blinded by all those flashing lights on the dashboard, but with all effort of my car to make me crash, i persevered and got to the end without further loss of the paintjob, hit the marker that signalled that the finish was fast approaching
Stage 7: Ditto Stage 7, now without the marker at the end.

Anyway, didnt finish last overall, gave the fans some nice fireworks in the form of sparks, shortened the car a little and enjoyed myself. onto the next rally, now hopefully with some upgrades.

edit: forgot a stage, cant remember which one, probably not crashy enough

Current results after the first day

Wonderful!

Stage 1 - Smooth enough but could have been quicker
Stage 2 - Terrbile, clipped a wall causing a double front tyre puncture
Stage 3 - Best one yet and felt extremely fun to drive

Nice graphics Lewis

Stage 1 - no flow but no incidents
Stage 2 - good stage, not perfect or anything, but solid.
Stage 3 - 180 degree spin. Lost about 7 seconds.

Stage 4 - Pretty good stage
Stage 5 - Good stage, gap to 1st only 1.8 seconds
Stage 6 - Pushed hard -> got a puncture very early on the stage. Lost about 23 seconds.

Stage 7 - Pushed hard, only a few tenths from best stage time.
Stage 8 - Pushed hard, only a few tenths from best stage time.

I'm happy with my pace. Losing around 30 seconds on incidents is not acceptable tho. Puncture was incredibly unlucky to get in the beginning of a very long stage.

It's easy to lose 30 seconds on incidents but almost impossible to close them back as long as people have ok pace.,


Does a setup improve your times any? I just ran default setup.

I would imagine setup would make a fair bit of difference if you make the car handle as close as you can to what you want.

I'm really very jealous of everyone that has been able to have a run at this so far. Having to wait until Monday is a pain! Lol.

Only got Advanced Setup on the car but after Leg 1 I think I'm the fastest Opel. I'll take that