Originally Posted by
mknight
Actually it is not fully true. (apart from the fact that there is no Mikkelson or Otsberg in WRC)
Breen has better result this year than Meeke (2nd vs 3rd).
Mikkelsen beat Meeke on both rallies where they raced together (Sardinia - even snail pace was enough to get points and beat Meeks crash, Germany he got second, Meeke got nothing due to crash again + technical, but this time Mikkelsen was also faster than him in 9 out of 13 stages and led him by over a minute in driving time).
Loeb was ahead of Meeke both times when he had puncture and off and beat him on both PS. "Loeb was getting beaten by Lappi in Corsica", he was on Saturday and Sunday + PS, but so was everyone else! Ohh and Lappi crashed causing a puncture in the process ;)
Østberg again beat Meeke on both rallies they raced together in same car (was a lot due to circumstances yes)
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If anything, the 2nd places of Breen + Mikkelsen and Loeb's speed had debunked the idea that "only Meeke can drive C3 fast".
Yes only Meeke did win with it. 2 times in 18 rallies, Mikkelsen drove 3, Loeb and Østberg 2, Breen 14 but before C3 his best results was a single 3rd place.
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Everyone understands that the crash in Portugal was really just the last drop/excuse for Citroen leadership.
However, there was a major difference compared with Ogier, Latvala, Tanak or Paddon. Those guys crashed when they were in real fights, 2 of them while leading the rally.
Meeke crashed when he was 40s behind Østberg and getting beaten by him in stagetimes (Lappi's penalty was registered first on Sunday). At that point he had nothing to fight for and the crash was completely unnecessary.