[WRC] Rally Finland 2013

[Kyberr]

I want to see Lukyanuk in WRC car, ASRT have found very talented guy...

[Ucci]

Ogier-deserved winner, but to be honest, it is a well expected victory. What non of us expected was the small gap in front of Mads and Thierry, sometimes he was even beaten-until yesterday afternoon, when he started to push. Still a small margin on Quninpohja shows no dominance over young guns.
Mads and Thierry are future stars, no shadow of a doubt! They are worth every penny and in the moment the only ones, who can threat Ogier.
Hirvonen-not a bad performance, but his times are definetely over. If he is not able to beat Mads&Thierry (I deliberately missed Ogier, who is ''from another planet'') on a home soil, the only solution for him is either pension or some lower championship.
Sordo-loser, loser, frustration,.....with his experience on this rally to be sometimes just few seconds faster than WRC2 drivers, it is waste of money and time. I hope he will win Germany and with this give a Citroen small thanks for their patience...and than leave the factory seat to maybe Meeke....
Speaking of Meeke-a hero for me ! After seven years to be again in Finland, first time in WRC car and and and....woau, guy impressed even himself. Shame for accident, but I think (and hope) he has a ticket for a DS3WRC for 2014!!
Novikov-second frustration of the weekend. Nothing to add here...
Mikkelsen-his way to the top is still loooong. Give him another year, maybe he will catch Mads&Thierry.
Hanninen-average performance, I think he is disappointed, except fourth stage he was never between three fastest drivers per stage...
JML-typical JML's rally. He must do one mistake to ruin his rallye...
Kubica-hero !! First time here, no mistake, second in his class. Respect!
Lukyanuk-showed that N4 is still a fast car, just a driver must play his role.
I enjoyed the rally !

[dupanton]

++ Ogier, Neuville and Ketomaa (outclassed the rest in WRC2)
+ Ostberg (was beaten by a much less experienced teammate), Kubica (very solid performance, fast and consistent), Paddon (a shame of "the rock", very good drive), Nikara (went fast with his tractor, only a shame it broke), Meeke (was a surprise for me, very good performance, only a shame he crashed at the end with nothing to gain)
+- Hirvonen (very fast at the beginning, then made a mistake and never recovered from it, although 2nd was still very possible), PG (not slow, not fast, but bad car I guess), Mikkelsen (people saw him on the podium before the season started, he is still a loooong way from that), Lukyanuk (crazy times, but a bit to crazy)
- Prokop (just saw him in the standings, never noticed he participated...)
-- Sordo (just very slow, was lucky to get as high as 5th), Novikov (not at the pace of the leaders and crashed in the end, will this ever stop?), Latvala (crashed... again)

[vkangas]

He is currently 2nd in the Finnish R2 Championship (Lindroos 1st, Kinnunen 3rd, who competed in NORF also), born in 1994 and competed many years in Estonia, when he was too young to drive in Finland. A lot of potential...

And he's also driving Fiesta Trophy Series which he dominates. Fiesta trophy drivers are also counted in Finnish Championship.
After 5/7 rallies:
1. Samuli Vuorisalo 119 pistettä
2. Jori Nousiainen 62 pistettä
3. Max Vatanen 25 pistettä
4. Christoffer Dahlström 24 pistettä
5. Olli Kankkunen 22 pistettä
6. Kimmo Vainio 14 pistettä
7. Mikko Tujamola 7 pistettä
8. Jukka Kankkunen 4 pistettä
9. Sami Korvola 2 pistettä

pistettä = points

[HarriK]

What is the point to stop JWRC four stages before the end of rally? The difference in cost in that case must be marginal but the crews are out of general classification. For me that is stupid.

Anyway Amberg pretty much crushed all.

For Finnish members... who is Vuorisalo? That guy was crazy fast (I understand that unlike JWRC he had a free tyre choice and possibly faster spec. of Fiesta R2 but still he was way ahead of all JWRC).

That's good that JWRC doesn't drive second round of stages. Especially yesterday would have been good choice not to run those in second run of stages. Roads were so bad. I bet that today there were bad sections in Surkee, Leustu and in the small road of Ouninpohja.

Mirek: did you notices also Jaro Kinnunen's times? He was faster than Vuorisalo but had a lot of problems in yesterday and today also. But Vuorisalo is also good, I don't know him very well.
Those Hankook tyres are pretty slippery here in Finland. Talked with drivers before the rally and they said that in Kuhmo/Michelin gyus would be minutes ahead them.
What is the reason that JWRC use bad tyres? Would it be good for drivers education to drive with better ones. JWRC should be "WRC" class and not to beaten by "local boys".

I will write maybe tomorrow my "story" about our NORF2013 trip. Just got back to home ... tired and a little bit unhappy to organisation and stages etc...

[RS]

Matton said before the rally that Finland was important for Mikko and he was still beaten by the best drivers from the other teams on his home rally. So I guess it's game over for him at the end of the year. I would like to see Neuville and Meeke at Citroen if they stay, and maybe Mikko would get a seat at Hyundai.

[RS]

Mikkelsen-his way to the top is still loooong. Give him another year, maybe he will catch Mads&Thierry.

I think he will. He has a big experience deficit to those two, especially Mads.

I actually think Mikkelsen has generally driven very sensibly this year. Not going all out to set times but gradually getting better and mopping up some points.

Neuville had a clunky first year in WRC but look at him now!

I hope to see Neuville, Meeke, Hanninen and Mikkelsen all with permanent WRC drives next year

Out with the old and in with the new please. I am bored of Hirvonen, Sordo, maybe even Latvala.

[Mirek]

That's good that JWRC doesn't drive second round of stages. Especially yesterday would have been good choice not to run those in second run of stages. Roads were so bad. I bet that today there were bad sections in Surkee, Leustu and in the small road of Ouninpohja.

Than they shall drive only first runs in every leg. Skipping one loop of the entire event doesn't change much and I think that most of the crews would prefer to be classified in the rally...

Mirek: did you notices also Jaro Kinnunen's times? He was faster than Vuorisalo but had a lot of problems in yesterday and today also. But Vuorisalo is also good, I don't know him very well.
Those Hankook tyres are pretty slippery here in Finland. Talked with drivers before the rally and they said that in Kuhmo/Michelin gyus would be minutes ahead them.
What is the reason that JWRC use bad tyres? Would it be good for drivers education to drive with better ones. JWRC should be "WRC" class and not to beaten by "local boys".

I've followed Jaro for more than two years since we met in Valašská rally, CZ, where they were observing the Fabia R2 and where we spent some time spectating together

[denkimi]

I think he will. He has a big experience deficit to those two, especially Mads.

mikkelsen has a lot more experience than neuville.

eWRC-results.com - profile Andreas Mikkelsen
eWRC-results.com - profile Thierry Neuville

[txl]

Could anyone share a link with the times of the Finnish national class drivers which were running after the WRC event?