Rally Italia Sardinia 2017

Great rally, great result!

I have been working with Ott since 2011 Germany and today was just........ no words, I am very, very happy !:) I posted last forecast for the team eraly in the morning and I was scheduled to fly from Tallinn to Berlin at 13:50 (Estonian time), today, luckily, plane was delayed 20 minutes (thank you AirBaltic for being consistent with your delays) and 20 seconds before taking off and switching my phone to flight mode, I got the mesage from the team - "Ott won !":):):):):)

I must say that this is a great team work. M-Sport might have the smallest budget, they might not have separate people for each task, they might noth have fancy caps or posters for the fans.. but what I have seen, they work really closely as a team. Most of the people are not working for the money only, they work with a passion and for the passion. I have talk to the person who is driving the truck, sets up service park and helps with quarding overnight, opens the gates for VIP-s and quests and he is really proud about his work! He feels as an important part of the team. I have seen how Julien is shaking everybodies hand in sevice park in the morning.. This is really good example how the team has grown together as a family. I think, this is one of the reaons behind their success in this season. I am just looking and wondering about one other team where one star driver is playing down his car and complaining mehcanical issues stage, by stage, day by day. this is not team spirit. They have something to learn from M-Sport.

I will take a second beer now :)

One thing that must be definitely noted here. Big, big, big, big, big credits to Toyota. Clerck of the course did nothing related to Latvalas dust problem and sportingly, Toyota decided not to ask to review his stage time. This is great rally spirit, this is rally :) Thank you Tommi, you are GREAT for the rally!

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Originally Posted by dimviii

We did really important steps before Portugal, we were not competitive in Mexico or Argentina and we have understood other things in other areas so the car was really competitive here. It is looking very positive for all the team. Lappi was driving very well, also Hanninen was driving well before the power steering problems but we do have one problem because I said on the interview on Saturday that I would stop my driving if I did not get the time benefit. I did not get it and I am a person that stands behind my words. The situation is this; I am in the middle of the season and have never been so close to the championship leader, even if I am in forth position. I would not really want to stop now when things are looking good. I must apologise for my words but you have to understand that there is lots of passion for this sport and I want to do well so this is why I was a bit frustrated. Sorry about that

http://www.fia.com/news/wrc-tanak-fe...-has-been-done

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Wow. His attitude is a bit scary. It makes it sound like he's getting frustrated with the title again. I don't want him to go back to 2016!

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Another crazy rally!

The good: Tanak, whole Toyota team, Sordo's good pace on gravel, championship fight got tightened, saturday Red Bull tv production
The bad: Citroen car, Meeke, Paddon, wrcplus live stages commentary (seemed especially horrible after comparing it to Red Bull on saturday)

Matton finally making some "corrections" is also good and a break rally will probably help Meeke. After the SSS on thursday the first thing he said was he put the previous rallies out of his mind. Except he didn't and mentioning it at the first chance he got shows it. After that quote i was sure he would crash but it's now clear the car is the most set up sensitive by far of all '17 machines so can't put all blame on him.

Also, for me, Neuville has surpassed Ogier as biggest whiner by far.

Tänak in a hurry

https://www.facebook.com/EpicRallyTr...7164292481911/

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

Also, for me, Neuville has surpassed Ogier as biggest whiner by far.

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Oh, boy!

For McKlein

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4a7f834fba.jpg

I love this rally!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...44f05e207d.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...eb0abaa9a9.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...184203a822.jpg

Something special for the Estonians. Well done and congrats!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...285166621f.jpg

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

Also, for me, Neuville has surpassed Ogier as biggest whiner by far.

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He has become my villain, the attitude of a 3-year-old, the ego of a sociopath and a temper shorter than a yardstick in a black hole.

A very gifted driver without a doubt, but also a properly unlikeable character.

Huge congrats to Tanak and Jarveoja for their victory; first of many, surely. A big applause to EstWRC, bluuford and the other Estonian fans for their continuous support to Tanak, here on the forum and also on WRC stages, waving the nice looking Estonian flags!

Also huge congrats to Lappi for his pace and stage wins. I’ve said a long time ago: he’s champ material!

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Originally Posted by Watson

He has become my villain, the attitude of a 3-year-old, the ego of a sociopath and a temper shorter than a yardstick in a black hole. A very gifted driver without a doubt, but also a properly unlikeable character.

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No need to be that harsh Watson. WRC isn't a popularity contest; we must praise drivers for their talent and forgive possible character flaws, having in mind the huge pressure they're submitted.

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Originally Posted by Rally Power

No need to be that harsh Watson. WRC isn't a popularity contest; we must praise drivers for their talent and forgive possible character flaws, having in mind the huge pressure they're submitted.

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And yet you've got Latvala, Breen, Paddon, Lappi, who are modest and never place the blame on someone else unless absolutely necessary. Neuville thinks he's untouchable.

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Originally Posted by steve.mandzij

And yet you've got Latvala, Breen, Paddon, Lappi, who are modest and never place the blame on someone else unless absolutely necessary. Neuville thinks he's untouchable.

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Neuville is under tremendous pressure this is his one and only chance for WDC, until Sebastien makes the car for himself.

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Originally Posted by stefanvv

Neuville is under tremendous pressure this is his one and only chance for WDC, until Sebastien makes the car for himself.

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Still no excuse to be a dick. In that case, everyone is under pressure of trying to make the most out of their only championship chance in years. There's no doubt it's gotten to everyone (Latvala had never been as angry as this time for all I know). Neuville needs to get his head out of his ass.

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Originally Posted by steve.mandzij

Neuville thinks he's untouchable.

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Can’t agree with you Steve. He accepted depromotion inside the team in several ‘15 rally’s and was able to get back to the top during ‘16, proving he's one of the best.

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Originally Posted by Rally Power

Can’t agree with you Steve. He accepted depromotion inside the team in several ‘15 rally’s and was able to get back to the top during ‘16, proving he's one of the best.

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That is true, but in those times he had nothing he could lean on to support his "if you look at my teammates the car isn't fast". Back then, he'd been humbled.

Also, thanks for being polite:)

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I understand that they are under pressure and that you probably don't get very far if you don't think pretty highly of yourself. But there are charming egos like Gronholm, Petter Solberg, Carlos Sainz. Neuville more often than not just comes about flatout arrogant. There's no banter through sarcasm or comments where you have to read between the lines.

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Originally Posted by HaCo

No images from last Paddon crash?

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsp...italy-sardegna

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Originally Posted by smokingjoe

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsp...italy-sardegna

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Does he need 'don't cut' a bit more often in the notes? Bit of a odd place to clip the inside, almost like he was anticipating a touch of understeer and got a sharper turn-in than expected.

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Originally Posted by Rally Power

Also huge congrats to Lappi for his pace and stage wins. I’ve said a long time ago: he’s champ material!

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it is a little bit pity/shame these young indisputably talented boys are obliged to drive in WRC2 or ERC until age of 26 or higher (and EP was quite lucky to drive best team out of WRC(1) because many "young guns" don´t have such luck and opportunity). Generally the situation with factory seats is very bad these days.

We have four manufacturers with three cars each, so it makes 12 factory seats. Look few years back how many factory seats were available. Do you still think the situation is very bad these days?
Obviously it is difficult to get on top, but such is the nature of life. Always was & always will be.

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Originally Posted by GravelBen

Does he need 'don't cut' a bit more often in the notes? Bit of a odd place to clip the inside, almost like he was anticipating a touch of understeer and got a sharper turn-in than expected.

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Has always quoted what my father told me back in the years: front wheels on the road.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

That foam looks like non-alcoholic beer though :)

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OR Dutch "beer". :D

Little clip of Lappi hitting the drone.

https://www.facebook.com/rallyemag/v...5461658779973/

Definitely the drone operators must understand how dangerous can be their toy for both the drivers and the spectators.
I like drones view and I think they should operate at WRC events but that's not stuff for irresponsible people.

And I don't want to think that it wasn't a professional operator and that normal people are allowed to use them in crowded places...

As I said before i would definitely like to see the video from this drone. From its view :D Even with broken camera the video must exist until that moment. But releasing that video would reveal its operator and that is something he doesn´t need :D

Heh, watching Power stage on mobile phone in the grocery store, in front of champagne shelf was interesting experience. But at least that was worth it! :D
Big hopes for new wins from Ott.

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Originally Posted by liposh

As I said before i would definitely like to see the video from this drone. From its view :D Even with broken camera the video must exist until that moment. But releasing that video would reveal its operator and that is something he doesn´t need :D

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I got a copyright warning from WRC pretty quickly when i posted the Lappi onboard so no doubt it's DJi :p

https://www.ewrc.cz/images/2017/phot...l_img_6629.jpg
https://www.ewrc.cz/images/2017/phot...l_img_6690.jpg
https://www.ewrc.cz/images/2017/phot...l_img_6634.jpg
https://www.ewrc.cz/images/2017/phot...l_img_6779.jpg

Please put empty lines between the photos, I didn't notice the bridge on the second photo at first sight. :)

Hello all!

Here our video!! We enjoy a lot with these super zones!! Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2vIDySbkDY

nice video with nice spots Atob WRC,thank you mate!

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Originally Posted by AL14

Little clip of Lappi hitting the drone.

https://www.facebook.com/rallyemag/v...5461658779973/

Definitely the drone operators must understand how dangerous can be their toy for both the drivers and the spectators.
I like drones view and I think they should operate at WRC events but that's not stuff for irresponsible people.

And I don't want to think that it wasn't a professional operator and that normal people are allowed to use them in crowded places...

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Greetings from PortoTorres (back after beach day at Castelsardo).Definitely saw unauthorized drone use in Terranova! However that was used responsibly compared to the authorized idiot at Micky's jump. After showing off prior to the cars arriving he had the bloody thing hovering in every photographer's shot line. Just hope he didn't have the drone insured!

Any videos of Paddon's last crash? Reported it was the same situation as the first but worse, wasn't it?

only incar at previous pages

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Originally Posted by BigWorm

Any videos of Paddon's last crash? Reported it was the same situation as the first but worse, wasn't it?

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It's on here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsp...italy-sardegna

so what's happening to Paddon? Just a difficult moment? no feeling with the car? Unluck? He has problems entering corners? A bit of all of this?

I really am Sorry for him. he is very committed, works very hard, It hurted me not too see him at the start of Monti di Ala

Inviato dal mio HUAWEI G7-L01 utilizzando Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by EightGear

It's on here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsp...italy-sardegna

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Nasty impact there, the high speed is almost stopped instantly. Amazing if no injuries were sustained.

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Originally Posted by AL14

so what's happening to Paddon? Just a difficult moment? no feeling with the car? Unluck? He has problems entering corners? A bit of all of this?

I really am Sorry for him. he is very committed, works very hard [...]

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I think we and especially he has to look at this rally isolated from the rest of the season. He has been struggling since the Monte incident, recently his form is clearly pointing upwards.

The first accident was just a momentary lapse of concentration. The second was either a result of frustration or him trying to win the power stage (which makes sense given his pace was blistering all weekend combined with the fact he had nothing to lose anymore).

In the context of the whole season it looks like a nightmare, if you look at just this rally it is not so bad. Tanak and Latvala were chasing him down, so it made sense to keep on pushing on Saturday to take the heat out of Sunday and it went wrong - that's rallying.

The second off happened on the stage before PS. If anything he should have driven slowly to save tires.

On Monte the off wasn't really big and if it wasn't for the circumstances he could have prbly easily gotten to service with small timeloss.
Sweden was ok given what happened on Monte.
Mexico was again ok, technical issues.
Corsica confirms he still is not there on tarmac - this tbh might be one of the main issues as a factory driver these days can't imo afford to be very weak on tarmac. He should really focus on that, drive some other rallies/series/gokart w/e when possible.
Argentina was a stupid small mistake, very similar to both off on Sardinia. Still struggling with the car even when it worked.
Portugal good, again technical issues

Yes altogether it doesn't look so bad. BUT when you compare it with last year vs Sordo and with the fact that Hyundai was most likely the best car most of this season it suddenly does not look that good.

Also they do seem to have some serious issues between him and Neuville. I noticed something last year as well but it doesn't look like it got any better. Whatever the reason is, if Hyundai should pick one it will be Neuville the way it is now.
Slightly worrying all of that. He did very well last year in Poland and will have good starting position so a podium should definitely be possible.

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Originally Posted by mknight

Argentina was a stupid small mistake, very similar to both off on Sardinia.

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Quite different wasn't it, I don't know if you could even call the Argentina roll a mistake - he was on the right line, in the middle of the road and the car just somehow caught a rut at low speed and slowly tipped over. Ogier would have blamed it on road position. ;)

In general I agree though, he's had probably 3 small but consequential mistakes this season and everything else has been due to technical problems.

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Originally Posted by mknight

The second off happened on the stage before PS. If anything he should have driven slowly to save tires.

On Monte the off wasn't really big and if it wasn't for the circumstances he could have prbly easily gotten to service with small timeloss.
Sweden was ok given what happened on Monte.
Mexico was again ok, technical issues.
Corsica confirms he still is not there on tarmac - this tbh might be one of the main issues as a factory driver these days can't imo afford to be very weak on tarmac. He should really focus on that, drive some other rallies/series/gokart w/e when possible.
Argentina was a stupid small mistake, very similar to both off on Sardinia. Still struggling with the car even when it worked.
Portugal good, again technical issues

Yes altogether it doesn't look so bad. BUT when you compare it with last year vs Sordo and with the fact that Hyundai was most likely the best car most of this season it suddenly does not look that good.

Also they do seem to have some serious issues between him and Neuville. I noticed something last year as well but it doesn't look like it got any better. Whatever the reason is, if Hyundai should pick one it will be Neuville the way it is now.
Slightly worrying all of that. He did very well last year in Poland and will have good starting position so a podium should definitely be possible.

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Good summary. Personally I don't think he has anything to worry about with regards how his team think about him. His attitude is good and when the car is working he is fast, even more so now that they have changed the set-up to be more to his liking. How difficult this is to do and its effect was demonstrated through Mikklesens performance this weekend. He was slow, really slow with a set-up he wasn't familiar with.

The Neuville thing was casued by Neuville's nose being pushed out of joint when Paddon started going as fast as him, then faster combined with a drop in Neuvilles performance.

I think Neuville could pick a fight with anyone.