He has to take points for manufactureres as well, at least Cyril will ask him to do so
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I really enjoyed this rally back on tarmac.
A great battle with very close times at the top, lots of drama every day, some driver nightmares, one very good comeback, and all on tricky but beautiful stages. Bravo CER.
In lower classes, Chatillon obtains the First significant RC3-class win for Renault against Ford.
And for the Beyond Rally program between the 3 women, very difficult for the 3 with a lot of technical issues (1 retirement on Friday for Schönborn, 2 on Saturday and Sunday for Jyrkiainen), 1 off for Baudet (retirement on Saturday).
Decision tonight normally between Schönborn and Baudet (Jyrkiainen was off the pace even before technical issues) … should be Schönborn IMO by a slight margin considering the whole weekend (same rythm than Baudet in the stages they competed together and better management of the weekend).
Two passes on powerstage today.
First spot looked great last year, but was completely killed off by anti cuts again. (Right before the junction where the track went right last year).
Second pass in spectator zone 41, was great. Braking slow turn, medium turn and fast one with lots of action. Came 35 mins before and could sit in first row with view of everything.
You could basically tell stagetimes by following where people lift off for the fastest corner. Mikkelsen seemed to push most, but Katsuta looked perfectly smooth and so did Solberg.
Overall the powerstage is great for spectators since you can park in the middle and are walking distance from many spots, just the anti-cuts were a tad excessive. Also basically only stage where cellnetwork wasn't overloaded, could watch RallyTV without any issues.
Extremely few people on powerstage overall and not many on saturday either. The big parking spots were like 1/3 full at best in CZ like 2/3.
Does anybody have the "what if" point standings using last years' points system? Just to see out of curiosity how it would look like.
I think it's quite probable Tanak could be 1st or 2nd on Saturday. Who could be in front of him? I can only think of Kalle. Neuville has to cruise around. Evans, not with this weekend's speed. Fourmaux, I don't think so. Ogier? If he'll bother showing up in Japan, I don't think he'll push hard to take the title away from his buddy.
It was already pretty much gone long time ago, but it was gone with today's powerstage. If Neuville finishes the rally, it is hard to believe he gets less than 6 points. For his own title, he just needs to cruise through, but there is also a need to get the title for the team.