Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2017 [May 18-21]

[dodge33cymru]

To play Devil's Advocate, at the moment they're getting the publicity without having to commit to a factory spending. What more are they going to get by spending an increased amount?

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[NickRally]

My first rally in more than 25 years (discounting a very minor event half way through) – I have to say utterly great experience. Granted, Wednesday was extremely frustrating due to all the wrong information I was fed by the organisers beforehand, but it all adds up to the character building and it was all part of the learning process, so even that was positive at the end of the day. On Thursday went to see the shakedown and the cars are simply superb, very cool, really liked them. It was also great to see how they handle from the stretch down to the jump and around the arena. Then back to the service park where luckily I got my photos, and in general genuinely enjoyed being able to see the cars up close. Then headed back to the airport, flew home and followed the rest of the rally on the net, which, as is usual these days, was very entertaining.

My impressions from the rally:
1. Positives:
- Very enthusiastic and well behaved fans
- Well organised stages
- Great atmosphere
2. Negatives:
- Service park can be in a bit more attractive location (plenty of these in Porto)
- At least on Thursday, no food stalls to speak of in the SD and SP areas

As I said, overall, a really great experience.

[Rally Power]

Honestly, I'm beginning to think the reason Ogier always wins the championship is because of his consistency rather than speed. The silly mistakes you constantly see Latvala, Meeke and Neuville making? Ogier very rarely makes mistakes like that, and if he does, he's lucky enough to usually get away without serious damage or time lost. Even if Ogier doesn't win the rally, he is usually not far away, and scoring good points that sustain his lead.
He wins through sheer precision. His rivals do all the work for him, by crashing.

Ogier is one step above the others and they made mistakes trying to reach his level, simple as that. His consistency comes from a top raw speed (a few others can be as fast as him but no one is faster), a more efficient driving style and a superior ability to know his and the car limits.

After the hard PET in Portugal he seems to be now totally confident on the car (no more need to overdrive like in MC or to get defensive like at Argentina) and on the stages everyone noticed he was on a wining mission. Tanak didn’t handle Ogier pressure at the beginning of the second leg, but that can’t be regarded as Ogier luck. With or without Tanak’s mistake the french would pass him and get a totally deserved win, just like he did.

Btw, I’m not even an Ogier fan.

[Tarmop]

It`s not that hard to be as fast as Ogier in Top6(?) and definitely there are faster drivers than him. Only problem is that others don`t have the consistency under pressure and thats why almost all the time Ogier beats them...also stability on all surfaces. And i can`t agree that without that mistake by Tänak Ogier would have certainly passed him in a honest duel. But that`s the part we aren`t going to know.

[EstWRC]

It`s not that hard to be as fast as Ogier in Top6(?) and definitely there are faster drivers than him. Only problem is that others don`t have the consistency under pressure and thats why almost all the time Ogier beats them...also stability on all surfaces. Also i can`t agree that without that mistake by Tänak Ogier would have certainly passed him in a honest duel. But that`s the part we won`t know.

exactly, we will never know this and i cant understand how someone can be so sure about it.

[Watson]

To play Devil's Advocate, at the moment they're getting the publicity without having to commit to a factory spending. What more are they going to get by spending an increased amount?

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My argument is that they would lose it all next year. The factory teams can do more to improve their cars with the bigger budgets and Ogier as it seems pretty surely would be gone. Tanak's contract is running out as well. So they might well not be in for the fight of any win (like they were for years before this season). Whereas if they start throwing up some money (not even a lot by a company like Ford's standards) they could be the ones to beat.

[Rally Power]

exactly, we will never know this and i cant understand how someone can be so sure about it.

You can think Tanak mistake was just bad luck, to me it came from Ogier pressure. If he didn't crash at SS12 he would probably do it later. It's not easy to have a 4 times WRC champion attacking you, stage after stage.

[Tarmop]

Yes, it may very well have been a mistake from pressure, but that`s rallying. There`s no point to overthink, what happened, happened and we can`t know what would have been, IF...
In RMC Tänak was threatened by Sordo and even Breen when running on three cylinders, he went mad on the last part of the PS (as we know, Sordo was past him in the middle) and in the end stayed on the podium, GB 2016, very tough again against Ogier...Poland 2016 against Mikkelsen (we can partially blame DMack`s weeker carcass in losing that one). Ogier himself has made mistakes under pressure, quite a lot actually but normally he has good luck, sometimes less luck ie. spins in Australia and Sweden in a fight for the win. Getting stuck in RMC also cost him valuable time, although Neuville made him a nice gift the following day.

[Mintexmemory]

You can think Tanak mistake was just bad luck, to me it came from Ogier pressure. If he didn't crash at SS12 he would probably do it later. It's not easy to have a 4 times WRC champion attacking you, stage after stage.

Absolutely agreed. Some people don't like Ogier's public persona but that shouldn't blind you to just how much better he is than the rest. The key issue about 'fastest' is that others might manage it for a stage or 2 but because they are on or over their limit they eventually break. At the same time Ogier (just as Loeb used to be) has something in reserve. So he goes off less and has less mechanical issues, while still being at any required pace.

[Tarmop]

I Also like Ogier and have nothing against this win but some of you talk like he`s not human (remember that MIB picture with Loeb ) and tend to forgot that he also has made quite a few driver-errors more similar to a rookie recently.