In Portugal, crashed from a certain lead on last stage
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Right.. who is leading this rally..
Clearly this is especially selective view.
You list 2 mistakes in 2,5 years... and at the same time say that two wins were "handed" by others mistakes. Turning it around in those cases (especially 2015 Spain) he kept his calm even when fighting off Latvala and it gave him the win. Can also list other examples like Portugal last year and fighting off Ogier, or the mentioned Australia.
In Germany this year he lost the lead on Friday in heavy rain and late road position with only some seconds lost on one breaking, Tanak who won was off the road and extremely lucky to climb up.
So no I don't see any big trend there. He's certainly not as stable as Ogier, but compared to all others drivers he's pretty average.
(Neuville has at least 3 DNF-offs under pressure this year, Tanak has Poland and Finland and so on)
As to how much of a mistake this was we'll see on the onboard, 3 other top drivers were off on this stage as well.
SAT 10:00 - SS11: PADDON
"I think it's time to forget about the result and the stage times here and try and get a good feeling for the car. If I look at the timing board I get disappointed. I've got to just try and enjoy it."
I'm following his stage end comment lately and he always sounds like a beaten man. I'm very sorry for him because it should be a very difficult moment for him as a driver. Going from an Ogier-beater and possible new world champion to pronely crashing and not showing speed anymore should be hard. Also the crash in Montecarlo didn't help.
I hope he will put things together but it will be difficult with half a program next year...