Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2017 [May 18-21]

[steve.mandzij]

So, any speculations?

I'm expecting Meeke and Neuville to be the fastest ones, but either of them can have good or bad luck, and that will decide the winner. Ogier will suffer on the first day to be first on the road and has had problems with the car. Tänak will be fast but not enough for a win. Evans could be fast here like he was in Argentina. Latvala said in an interview that he learned from Argentina that he needs to be quicker on the first day, to me that sounds like he's going to have an accident. Paddon and Østberg could throw in some good stage times and Sordo should be on a good position with steady performance if he doesn't have bad luck, but none of these three will finish on the podium. All I expect from Lappi is to be quicker than Hänninen and to finish.

Link to the interview?

I expect Neuville and Ogier to battle for the win, with Latvala trailing in third (possibly jumping them if he gets the car quick enough). Meeke will have a slow and steady weekend or go too fast and crash.

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[Watson]

Link to the interview?

I expect Neuville and Ogier to battle for the win, with Latvala trailing in third (possibly jumping them if he gets the car quick enough). Meeke will have a slow and steady weekend or go too fast and crash.

I agree with Neuville/Ogier/Meeke but unless they get struck with issues I'd expect Tanak, Evans and Sordo all to be quite a bit faster than Latvala.

[AnttiL]

Link to the interview?

http://www.ts.fi/urheilu/moottoriurh...la+Portugaliin

Here in Finnish

Opin Argentiinassa, että ensimmäinen päivä on hyvin tärkeä. Silloin on yritettävä, ja oltava kärkiviisikossa, jotta saa hyvät lähtöasemat seuraavaan päivään. Se on tavoite Portugalissa, ja jos keli on kehno avauspäivänä, lähtöpaikkani kakkosena voi itse asiassa auttaakin minua, kun tie menee takana huonompaan kuntoon

which translates about to:

I learned in Argentina that the first day is very important. You have to try then and to be in the top five to get a good starting position for the following day. That's the target in Portugal, and if the weather is bad on the opening day, my starting position as the second car may actually be an advance, as the road gets in worse condition behind me.

Not sure if that interview is some days old, but right now it seems that the weather is dry for the whole weekend, so Ogier and Latvala have probably some sweeping to do on the first day.

[Rally Power]

Not sure if that interview is some days old, but right now it seems that the weather is dry for the whole weekend, so Ogier and Latvala have probably some sweeping to do on the first day.

Yep, last week rain cleaned up a bit the stages but there’s still enough loose gravel to make starting order the most relevant aspect of this rally. In ’15 Latvala started beyond and managed to defeat Ogier, despite the French efforts; last year Meeke dominated from the start and this year he’s the clear favourite; it’s all about seeing if he stays in control of the C3 till the end, or not.

If he fails we’ll probably have another frantic rally, with second level guys trying to keep the advantage of the starting order and top drivers giving the most to recover first day lost time. My money is on Meeke, but honestly I woudn’t mind to have the second scenario and the rally win decided on last stage, between two or three drivers!

[AnttiL]

Actually the Latvala quote I posted previously was from a TGR press release. So I took Latvala's quote translated to Finnish and then re-translated it back to English ...

http://toyotagazooracing.com/release...6-preview.html

also it says that Toyota did most of their testing on wet conditions and now it seems the rally is totally dry...