[ERC] Sata Rallye Acores

[catty]

What utter nonsense !

1. Kopecky may not have won on gravel but he has huge experience and was usually only beaten by Hanninen
2. Breen is 9 years younger and has little gravel experience himself, being brought up on tarmac rallying in Ireland
3. He also has no gravel experience in the 207 and this was his first time in Azores and in horrendous conditions
4. The 207 is so old and is clearly inferior to the Skoda, not to mention out-gunned by the RRC Citroen & Ford
5. This is Breen's first season in IRC/ERC

And he should what ? Win the rally and the Championship ??

1. Matt Wilson also has lots of experience, does that mean he's winning rounds of the WRC? Kopecky is not a gravel driver in the same way that Panizzi was not a gravel driver

2. Breen has far more gravel experience than tarmac. He did not grow up on the Irish roads - he Contested the British, Irish and WRC Fiesta ST championship in his 1st year competing. 2 of these 3 are primarily gravel based championships. He also won the Irish junior championship that year, a series contested solely on gravel rendering your point well, pointless.

3. Breen has already completed 1,000s of kms in the 207, not to mention the 1,000's of kms testing the new 208 on gravel. It was his 1st time in Azores but then Meeke won it on his 1st visit

4. The 207 was updated last year and has was quick enough in the hands of Neuville (a tarmac driver) on gravel. Yes the DS3 is probably superior but it was being driven by a rallying novice with a total of no more than 500kms gravel experience in total

5. Its his first full season but he has done a few rounds before and is the current SWRC champion with 10's of thousands of kms experience in s2000 cars. To be taken seriously for a WRC works drive he really should be looking to win the championship this year - his only competition (for the overall title) are a driver not considered fast enough for a WRC drive and a novice

[catty]

Bouffier posted it on Facebook. He wrote exactly that: another team has an engine in their truck but they didn't not want to help him ("Une autre équipe en a un dans son camion mais ne souhaite pas nous aider").

Bryan Bouffier - Page Officielle | Facebook

Maybe Bouffier didnt have the money to pay for the engine and they didnt want to release the engine on credit?
That would be considered not helping.....

[RS]

For me, Breen did a good job to be best of the rest here.

Kopecky is obviously more at home on tarmac but when he is on the boil he can be pretty decent on gravel too (in the past here he was not far behind Hanninen and Mikelssen) From the footage we saw he was driving nicely.

At the moment I would say that Breen is more of a 'Wilks' than a 'Meeke'. Good but he needs a bit more...

[catty]

For me, Breen did a good job to be best of the rest here.

Kopecky is obviously more at home on tarmac but when he is on the boil he can be pretty decent on gravel too (in the past here he was not far behind Hanninen and Mikelssen) From the footage we saw he was driving nicely.

At the moment I would say that Breen is more of a 'Wilks' than a 'Meeke'. Good but he needs a bit more...

When you think about it thats a good comparison, in more ways than one!

[noel157]

Bouffier posted it on Facebook. He wrote exactly that: another team has an engine in their truck but they didn't not want to help him ("Une autre équipe en a un dans son camion mais ne souhaite pas nous aider").

Bryan Bouffier - Page Officielle | Facebook

High Noon in Corsica between Bouffier and the two engined team? Should be fun.

[noel157]

Duplicate post.

[Jarek Z]

Yes, High Noon in Corsica, "Bryan Bouffier vs The Two Engined Team" soon in theaters near you

[Kielder]

Great Lavadinho's pics on Sousa's Facebook account:






http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...2436621&type=3

I found this one there too. A bit artificial, but the car looks powerful:

[noel157]

Wallenwein's roll was, luckily, soft so to speak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...v=mEeE6Mk8biY#!

[shaperzrally]

IMO Breen is already familiar with the 207 and at least as fast as Kopecky on gravel. Do not forget in the case of Acores there was crazy weather during the recce too - not only during the rally itself - it was incredible hard to make correct pacenotes for a 1sttimer like Breen. Kopecky did this rally four times in the IRC years and that's one of the reasons why he won it know. No offence to Kopko though, he and Pavel did an awesome job not only on this rally but also in this season. The wisest decision for them is to compete on Corsica and achive a podium finish and then they can comfortable sit back and choose the rallys for the second half of the season where they will compete.