74th PZM Rally Poland

[Franky]

I expect Poland to become even bigger Estonian village than it was last year now.

[papar007]

First time in Poland so I don't know much about your rally. I was wondering if someone could help me follow it. I'll be staying at Mikolajki and I'm going to spectate shakedown Friday and Saturday, if I can follow with my car someone local it would be great. Thank you!

[AnttiL]

So some speculations...

If we look at the past years results, we see that Ogier, Neuville, Latvala and Mikkelsen have been in top 6 each year (Latvala has been fifth every year). Tänak and Paddon have also shown good results in the last two years and Tänak won WRC2 in 2014.

Tänak the obvious favourite for a win, even before Sardinia. Ogier is first on the road but shouldn't matter that much in this rally, he'll be fast here. Evans a bit of a question mark, will there be a DMack advantage?
Neuville will be fast, as will be Paddon, but Neuville will finish more probably without any incidents. Not probaly the best rally for Sordo.
Latvala has been consistently slower than his teammates in the past. Lappi has downspoken his pace in the media, but he might surprise us. Hänninen probably won't be as impressive as in Sardinia.
Mikkelsen has been fast here, but it's hard to say if he has made the car fit his style during the testing or not. All in all it's hard to expect anything from the whole Citroen team. Even Lefebvre made a stage win last year, but also crashed.
Østberg wasn't up on the pace last year, not expecting much from him. And Suninen's main objective is probably Rally Finland so he's just using Poland to adapt to the car and find the setup, so I hope he just stays on the road and gets race mileage.
WRC2 will be again too easy for Tidemand?

[tomhlord]

So some speculations...

If we look at the past years results, we see that Ogier, Neuville, Latvala and Mikkelsen have been in top 6 each year (Latvala has been fifth every year). Tänak and Paddon have also shown good results in the last two years and Tänak won WRC2 in 2014.

Tänak the obvious favourite for a win, even before Sardinia. Ogier is first on the road but shouldn't matter that much in this rally, he'll be fast here. Evans a bit of a question mark, will there be a DMack advantage?
Neuville will be fast, as will be Paddon, but Neuville will finish more probably without any incidents. Not probaly the best rally for Sordo.
Latvala has been consistently slower than his teammates in the past. Lappi has downspoken his pace in the media, but he might surprise us. Hänninen probably won't be as impressive as in Sardinia.
Mikkelsen has been fast here, but it's hard to say if he has made the car fit his style during the testing or not. All in all it's hard to expect anything from the whole Citroen team. Even Lefebvre made a stage win last year, but also crashed.
Østberg wasn't up on the pace last year, not expecting much from him. And Suninen's main objective is probably Rally Finland so he's just using Poland to adapt to the car and find the setup, so I hope he just stays on the road and gets race mileage.
WRC2 will be again too easy for Tidemand?

Looks like it's shaping up for another M-Sport vs Hyundai tustle.

[mknight]

The only type of stages where Hyundais have not been that impressive this year is on very fast open roads... exactly like in Poland.
Ford seems to work better, maybe also cause it suits Tanak and Ogier.
Toyota prbly gets help from the extensive aero.
Citroen did not have much handling issues on that kind of stages and Mikkelsen says it has very strong engine.

So I expect Hyundai to struggle a bit. Also Ogier will still loose some due to cleaning, little in km/s but on these roads the differences will be small whole rally. Furthermore I don't expect much from Evans.

[Watson]

I'll go along with what you guys said. I expect Tanak to win it, Ogier and Latvala on the podium and Neuville and Lappi behind them. All the others could align in any way possible, making ground on potential problems or slipups of the ones mentioned above.

[Allar]

Hello,

on maps its says on many roads that Entrace only for VIP, Does it mean that you cant get further with a car unless you have a VIP sticker or does it mean that you cant get there on foot? Many spots where i plan to spectate are surrounded with Entrace only for VIP sings.

[MartijnS]

You can't get further with a car without a VIP sticker.

[Allar]

You can't get further with a car without a VIP sticker.

But onfoot i can get in with a normal pass?

[Mad Max]

But onfoot i can get in with a normal pass?

Yes you can