Rally Italia Sardinia 2017

[Mintexmemory]

is anyone else wondering what is happening with the pickems results of the last 2 rally? or am i just the only one?

very hard to predict top 5 of each rallys now

My faith is on Tanak still, as said above he really needs to get a win soon otherwise...

Dupanton will come through but as I know keeping on top of Pickems is hard. Just keep going and wait for the summer break!

[mknight]

I'll start by listing those that I don't think will win:

Meeke - didn't drive last year, bad record from previous years, has relatively careless driving which is a problem on these kind of roads
Ogier - road cleaning likely to cost him too much on first day
Mikkelsen - too little time in car, bad record in Sardinia
Paddon - bit off the pace this year after Monte, still didn't have a consistent run

Neutral:
Tanak - good record in Sardinia and good road position, however, likely disadvantaged by diff/setup (ref. comments to est. media)

That leaves Neuville and Latvala as win candidates.

Off course with this tight season almost anything can happen. Kept out DMACK cause Portugal worked as a reality check, Argentina was quite cold gravel rally.

[AnttiL]

I'd say wait for the following faster rallies for possible Tänak or Paddon win, Sardinia is a technical rally which will be taken by the leading trio, who have a lot of experience from the rally, and who know when to watch out and when to go flat out.

[Mintexmemory]

Does anyone get the feeling that marshals will try to prevent anyone accessing any opart of a stage that isn't a spectator zone?

[Rallyper]

Yes. For sure. It happens in Sweden and in Finland all the time. But I use to keep walking, in Finland saying "Ei Suomalainen" ...

[AnttiL]

ATM the weather forecast is all dry and quite hot for the weekend

[tommeke_B]

Does anyone get the feeling that marshals will try to prevent anyone accessing any opart of a stage that isn't a spectator zone?

Are you talking about one event in particular? Personally I haven't seen safety measures becoming much more strict during the last 10 years, sometimes it's even the opposite. On some events like Sweden and Sardinia marshalls seem to trust that people have some common sense. On other events like Finland, you must "get off the road" even nearly an hour before the stage starts. In Germany (and the almost forgotten France-Alsace) it's true that pretty much every place apart from public areas is forbidden to be, that's the main reason why I'm not visiting the German round anymore, despite it's only a 3-and-a-half hour drive.

[Mintexmemory]

Are you talking about one event in particular? Personally I haven't seen safety measures becoming much more strict during the last 10 years, sometimes it's even the opposite. On some events like Sweden and Sardinia marshalls seem to trust that people have some common sense. On other events like Finland, you must "get off the road" even nearly an hour before the stage starts. In Germany (and the almost forgotten France-Alsace) it's true that pretty much every place apart from public areas is forbidden to be, that's the main reason why I'm not visiting the German round anymore, despite it's only a 3-and-a-half hour drive.

Sorry guys I mistakenly posted this query in Crystal Ball Time when it should have been in the Rally d'Italia thread.
Movement to Sardinia thread at Synday 1306 CET!!!

[AnttiL]

CITROËN DRIVERS KRIS MEEKE AND CRAIG BREEN HAVE WELCOMED THE ARRIVAL OF ANDREAS MIKKELSEN AS THE MANUFACTURER SEEKS TO GET ITS CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGE BACK ON TRACK.
The former Volkswagen star has been drafted into the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi squad for Rally Italia Sardegna (8-11 June) in a bid to turn around a miserable first half of the season.

Team-leader Meeke won the WRC's third round in Mexico, but has failed to score any points from the last three rallies. The Northern Irishman said he was "fully focused on getting back onto the positive trend" in Sardinia and had high hopes for Mikkelsen's arrival.

"I think it's a good thing to have Andreas in the team. He brings valuable experience and he has the potential to win rallies. We'll work together to ensure Citroën wins," he said.

Seventh in the drivers' standings, Breen is the team's highest ranked driver. "I'd like to say welcome to Andreas; we don't know each other very well at the moment, but I'm looking forward to working with him!" he said.

The arrival of Mikkelsen and co-driver Anders Jæger in the team has been one the most talked-about developments ahead of the rally.

But team boss Yves Matton warned against expecting too much from his new recruit, who drove the C3 WRC for one day in the south of France last week.

"Obviously, the fact that Andreas is competing at this event for us has caused a lot of excitement and expectation. But after just one day of testing, it is impossible for him to know the C3 WRC inside out. He will therefore be free to race according to his feeling in the car and adapt his pace accordingly," Matton explained.

"We have decided to keep the same modest goals for this rally: we have asked our crews to ensure two cars to finish in the top five."

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/may-2...3--12-12-.html

[cmac]

Is there an historic or national rally running after the wrc as last year?