http://planetemarcus.com/saison-wrc/...portugal-2022/
Route seems identical to 2021 except for the addition of a new opening super special in Coimbra, Vieira do Minho shortened a few km and Montim run twice on Sunday
Printable View
http://planetemarcus.com/saison-wrc/...portugal-2022/
Route seems identical to 2021 except for the addition of a new opening super special in Coimbra, Vieira do Minho shortened a few km and Montim run twice on Sunday
Rumors of both Loeb and Ogier starting in Portugal
https://www.rallit.fi/mestareiden-ta...a-mm-rallissa/
Confirmed (Toyota confirmed earlier)
https://twitter.com/sebastienloeb/st...326956548?s=21
Loeb vs. Ogier II - the rematch in Portugal. Let's get ready to rumble!
Don’t think it will be the same story.
1. I’m not sure Loeb is still able to fight for victory everywhere.
2. Ogier will have a way better road position than Loeb (at least Tanak, Katsuta, Greensmith between them) if no rain (and if rain like in ERC in March, I don’t think Loeb can fight for the win)
3. Also do not forget that Evans and Sordo will have even better road position.
All in all, would be already really good if Loeb can fight for podium.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/ogier...n-in-portugal/
An announcement on Ogler's participation is likely to happen on Tuesday, not sure if tomorrow or next week.
Can’t wait for this rally to happen already. I have always been excited for the first gravel round of the year
- Loeb and Ogier back again and bringing excitement and extra competitiveness
- how will Kalle do as first on the road, will he still smash everyone
- how is the gravel form of different teams. Remember Hyundai still hasn’t tested on gravel
- what times is Ogier capable of showing when he now finally gets to start from back
- Loeb and Tänak starting 4th and 5th, so will be interesting to watch their times
- what can Sordo do from his position
- will we get some red hybrid lights after Fafe jumps :D
Bring it on!
Ogier confirmed
https://twitter.com/TGR_WRC/status/1518561712466632708
Entry were closed week ago.
Entries will be published this Friday!
Rally is also part of "JWRC" and local Peugeot and ToyotaGR cup. Max number of entries 90.
Toyota Iberian cup have no FIA homologation. Maybe outside of that numbers.
The entry list has been published, the level will be incredible in RC2 (almost Avengers-level :D )
Mikkelsen, Suninen, Gryazin, Solberg, Bulacia (and the younger brother also), Kajto, Rossel, Ingram, Camilli, Pietarinen, Linnamae, Cais, Lefebvre, Marczyk, Guerra, Prokop, J. Solans + all the Portuguese leaders (Araujo,Magalhaes, Almeida, Meireles).
And even with some drivers not there: Lindholm, Huttunen, Veiby, Ostberg (probably no WRC-2 season for him).
With Loeb, Ogier and the WRC2 entries this is like an all-star rally. Exciting!
Assuming the weather is dry, those top drivers lower down the start order (Evans, Tanak) would hope to get a better result than Rovanpera who opens the road on day one.
Here however they will have Ogier and Loeb to fight with, so making their chances lower and Rovanpera may benefit.
Friday is also relatively short, almost half of the rally is driven on Saturday. For the latest starters on Friday, there could also be some stones on the way causing punctures.
Last year after Friday Tänak was leading, having started fourth. Evans was 6s behind, having started third. Neuville started second and was second until he crashed out. Ogier was fifth at the end of the day, having started first on the road, 24s behind Tänak.
Of course Ogier and Evans will be strong now with a good road position, but Tänak (fifth on the road) will be also up there.
If I am correct, last year was raining (heavily) before rally.
Here is selection of photos in order: Shakedown, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. As route was a copy from 2019, you can compare how dry and dusty it was 2 years earlier.
Attachment 2276
Attachment 2277
Attachment 2278
Attachment 2279
Team and driver thoughts on their Rally1 cars' readiness for gravel:
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/whos-...ars-on-gravel/
WRC Portugal - Ogier is not sure he can fight for the win. The Frenchman says he does not know how much he will be able to exploit the Yaris Rally 1 on gravel:
"It's a challenge to get back in the car after three months. It's not huge, but I have to try to find the right feeling. It's more exciting when you come back - I've been on vacation with my family and I'm feeling pretty fresh right now.
Sure, the car has changed a bit since last time, but it's also the first time on gravel for me [on a Rally 1], so it's new and the car behaves quite differently than the previous generation. For me it's like learning again to find out what I can do and where the limits are. It is difficult to estimate what level we are at, but we will know soon enough when the race starts."
https://www.rallyssimo.it/2022/05/10...r-la-vittoria/
Strange declaration at least, not very Ogier-esque, especially when being on holiday with his family but not mentioning at all his Spa 2022 WEC race last week
I think a driver like Ogier won't have problems getting used to the car and being at the top after few SS.
Maybe he does feel disappointed with how tough Spa was for him. In other disciplines he's certainly more "human" than in rallying.
Seems like he has trouble adapting to WEC, here is a link to interview of Ogier with Belgian RTBF during the Spa WEC weekend where he goes in great detail about the difference between WEC and WRC
What's the most difficult?
"The use of tires is something very sensitive, even more so than with us in rallying. I don't have the experience, so I don't have the understanding yet. I had made a visualization of the car perhaps even better than it is, I tend to expect a little too much from the car and therefore over-drive it. It's one of the things in which I'm improving and where I still have to improve with the short time I have on the track. This is clearly a parameter that I had not anticipated."
www.rtbf.be/article/sebastien-ogier-un-homme-heureux-10990222
Found out today, that there is no service on Friday.
Another great idea, first proper gravel rally on rough Portugal roads with new cars and let's gamble again..
route can be same but cars are different, and Fridays stages are rougher than on Saturday if im not mistaken.
Anyway, finally back on gravel, crazy to think the last time we had gravel rally was last years Rally Finland in October! The absence of Mexico and Argentina definitely hurts in that sense.
In my eyes the favourites for the win are Ogier and Tänak, both with good starting positions, we know Ogiers record here, although he won last time in 2017. Tänak won in 2019 and was leading last year by 22 secs before the suspension failure. Loeb and Kalle are dark horses for the win, Loebs gravel form is kinda unknown at this point and Kalle is gonna struggle on first day but the question is how much? The guy is in such a form that i think even if he looses like 25 secs after Friday he can take it back with Saturday, depends of starting position again.
Breen is gonna struggle again i think, like in Monte he doesnt have the experience. Gus said he wants his first podium from here but i think he chose completely wrong event for that with Loeb, Ogier, Sordo in the list amongst regulars + Tänak and Evans having good starting positions. Evans is another big question mark, what can he do? Last year he won but he isnt in good shape this year.
And the class of WRC2, man thats gonna be interesting as hell too.
We're gonna have an amazing rally i think.
If Evans wants the championship he has to win I'm afraid. For the pts first and foremost (as there's potentially a fair few drivers that can get inbetween him and Kalle, what with Loeb, Ogier, Tanak, Sordo, and even drivers like Greensmith fancying their chances). But also for his own confidence...., Croatia was a strange rally for him but he was on the pace in Monte and Sweden.
However I can't see past Ogier. He's waited to start this far back for years and is looking to make a statement
My point was that it's not "another great idea", they had the same route base already in 2019. The Coimbra area stages are too far from the service park, they can't have a midday service. And otherwise we would have to drop Arganil and the other great stages from that area and redesign the route. But yeah, 121 km with no service is a long way to go. On Saturday you have then two 80 km loops, so this is quite an endurance rally by today's standards!
I agree with the rest of your post. Ogier, Evans, Tänak and Sordo are my favourites for the win. It could be down to luck who wins. I think Rovanperä will struggle, Loeb will not be as strong as in Monte. Difficult to say for the youngsters like Greensmith and Katsuta, who have promised to show some pace. We could see strong stage times but also crashes.
Breen hasn't started a technical gravel rally with WRC since Catalunya 2018 so he's totally down on experience. The other drivers have done the new Friday stages twice, but for him they are completely new. And even his starting position doesn't give that much advantage.
by the way: if someone is coming to sardegna shout out!
Is spectating free for Rally Portugal, first time here for over 20years and info seems to be at a premium.
https://rallyzepub.vost.pt/
There are paid zones with food and drinks, but all other areas are free.
Don´t forget Pickems, guys! Closing at 20.00 hrs CEST (note: changed closing time due to wrong timezone)
Seen couple of pics from recce and some of the parts look it has rained recently and are moist.
This can help Kalle a lot although during the rally the weather will be very hot.