I understand that some people want to defend Ogier but the accident was clearly his mistake.
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I understand that some people want to defend Ogier but the accident was clearly his mistake.
The optics if police somehow affects the result with uncessary action (for example putting Ogier in jail just before the PS). Will in the end affect how the rally is viewed.
There have been lots of rallies run with close to no spectators visible. ERC rally Roma or Monza last year had like 1/100th the amount og people.
The countries obviously set the rules themselves. But then there is the contrast between rules and actual situation. How will crowd control work if the rally is "open" and you get 2-3 times more people than now? Maybe perfectly..maybe not.
Incredible behavior by Ogier. If this was done by random WRC3 driver, he'd probably get DQ for causing an accident & disobeying police, and then his license revoked. But it's Ogier, he might just get a slap on the back of one hand.
Well, we don't know why Ogier left and why police wanted him to stop. Of course it will not affect Ogier's rally but we'll see what they'll do afterwards. Laws and rules are laws and rules.
As I mentioned, COVIS restrictions in Croatia are very liberal and people are very sensitive about lockdowns and any kind of movement restrictions. I don't see way of stopping them from spectating.
If FIA finds it problematic for the rally's future than they are shooting in their own foot. WRC just grew immensely in Croatia and people enjoy it - and then you give the rally a thumbs down because they do, only because it was against the spectating rules?
Hopefully it won't happen.
Another big moment of Gryazin from SS15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctGRtBQ9cHg
When police stops someone a lot is left for them to decide. From nothing over writing a fine and goodbye up to arrest and drive to hospital for drug/alkohol blood test. Sure you can can complain at the court afterwards but there and then they have a lot of options which are all up to them.
Obviously here we don't know much. Except that Ogier waited for the police to arrive, that there was likely another team member that stayed and that there was video evidence.
Actually it's a weird situation - like police was not sure what they are doing. If Ogier was not allowed to go, then in some other countries he could not go anywhere. And if he was not allowed to go and caused some danger to the policeman, it could be a completely different story.
What is all the fuss about?! These incidents happen and Im sure Toyota is more than keen on paying the damages to the BMW owner. It has happened before in Portugal for example and at the time the owner was given a brand new pick up truck. Why was the police there? Were they looking for a payout?!