Only 29 entrants with ASN drivers?! This rally should be out of calendar...
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Only 29 entrants with ASN drivers?! This rally should be out of calendar...
A bit sad yes, especially considering this years tight battle, very easy to get good points. Probably wouldn`t change anything this year, but if the keep doing those events far away with easy points available for slow, rally2 and WRC2 drivers, they should do it like they do in JWRC, more points.
Sweeping will be huge disadvantage for Ogier. I know Nueville was a little upset and wanted to have maybe a 1-2 point +/- going into Australia.
Wasn't Ogier sweeping last year and had an off? Australia day one can be nasty and it has been super dry this year. We've had no rain and drought problems in NSW. The roads will be dry soft and dusty if it continues this way...
Last year Ogier had a gear shift issue on Friday and lost about 20 seconds to Neuville. But on two stages he didn't have the issue and was actually faster than Neuville. Meanwhile, Mikkelsen was blowing everyone out of the water with a good starting position. So I wouldn't say being second on the road is such a great advantage to being first on the road, but further back you get far more grip. I would say it will be another Tänak showdown from the first stage.
I was looking at the manu points and MSPORT really has only theoretical chance, basically they need win +2-3 place and Toyota best 4th with two other cars completely out (no SR). Hyundai has some chance but still needs that 2 of 3 Toyotas drop to 7+ position if one stays near podium.
For drivers I think Neuville has a good chance to finish ahead of Ogier, but whether that's enough depends on the other drivers and PS. Tänak, Latvala, Mikkelsen and maybe Paddon can all mix in there.
Tänak needs to win and basically that both Ogier and Neuville crash, cause if they don't their teammates can let them go high enough up.
Route preview: https://itgetsfasternow.wordpress.co...ustralia-2018/
A lot of new stage titles, reversing and modification but none of the stages are totally new. Just like Rally Finland. And similarly, only one stage is run similarly as last year, which is a particularly fast stage which contains the only forest stage chicane. Just like Rally Finland...
If they will arrive at PS with 3 points difference at standings (e.g. Neuville 2nd O/A and Ogier 3rd O/A) everything will be decided at the PS and who will arrive ahead will win the championship. This will be a very interesting and emotional scenario
Yes yes but our road conditions are very very different this year due to the worst drought we've had in years... We will see how this all plays out.
WRCWings review of how the teams arrive to Australia based on the chassis jokers spent on aerodynamics
https://wrcwings.wordpress.com/2018/...lly-australia/