Stages from this week's Rallye de France Alsace will be streamed live and exclusive on the World Rally Championship's official website, wrc.com, as part of a pilot project to investigate future digital opportunities for the all-action series.

World Rally Championship promoter North One Sport has made a substantial investment in the trial, which will be used to test the latest camera and streaming technology as well as to gauge the appetite among fans for live online coverage and more interactive content.

Around 14 hours of coverage is planned, spread across Friday and Saturday’s competition, with the action available to view free of charge on a web media player accessed exclusively from the home page of wrc.com.

The coverage on Friday (30 September) will run between 1300hrs and 2000hrs (local time), with action from Saturday (1 October) shown between 1245hrs and 1930hrs.

Web TV programme :

Friday 30th September
Broadcast begins at Service A

Live with on-board cameras and helicopters:

- SS 5 : Klévener 2 – start 1st car at 13h23
- SS 6 : Ungersberg 2 – start 1st car at 13h49
- SS 7 : Pays d’Ormont 2 – start 1st car at 14h54
- SS 8 : Salm 2 – start 1st car at 15h47

Live:

- Service park B
- Meet the crew Session

Saturday 1st October

Starts with interviews with the team managers

Recap of the morning’s stages
Live with on-board cameras and helicopters:

- SS 13 : Hohlandsbourg 2 – start 1st car at 13h01
- SS 14 : Firstplan 2 – start 1st car at 13h19
- SS 15 : Vallée de Munster – start 1st car at 13h48
- SS 16 : Grand Ballon 2 – start 1st car at 15h11
- SS 17 : Mulhouse – start 1st car at 16h56

Folow live

Service park E

On-board cameras in the following cars:
Citroën

Sébastien LOEB – Daniel ELENA
Sébastien OGIER – Julien INGRASSIA
Peter SOLBERG – Chris PATTERSON
Kimi RAÏKKÖNEN – Kaj LINDSTRÖM
Peter VAN MERKSTEIJN – Erwin MOMBAERTS

Ford

Mikko HIRVONEN – Jarmmo LEHTINEN
Jari-Matti LATVALA – Miikka ANTTILA
Mads OSTBERG – Jonas ANDERSSON
Henning SOLBERG – Ilka MINOR
Dennis KUIPERS – Frédéric MICLOTTE

Mini

Kris MEEKE – Paul NAGLE
Dani SORDO – Carlos DEL BARRIO

Loeb damages car in Rally de France recce

Sebastien Loeb damaged his car during the recce for this week's Rally de France, while the defending world champion was attempting to cut corners on the route for his home round of the series.

The organisers of the Strasbourg-based event have put steel poles on the inside of some corners in an effort to stop the drivers cutting corners and dirtying the road for the crews following. Last year, the drivers complained bitterly at the level of mud pulled into the road, seriously handicapping those further down the field.

Loeb said: "I thought I would test to see what happened if you hit the pole. I hit a few, but then after four or five I hit one and I damaged the oil cooler on the recce car [Mitsubishi Lancer].

"The front of the recce car is very strong, stronger than the front of the DS3 WRC which is lighter and made more aerodynamic and also the speed will be much higher in the rally car, so this was not a good idea."

Loeb did not lose any time through the damaged oil cooler, which was changed during the recce service yesterday.