[WRC] Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2019

[mknight]

Greensmith has to show speed, a stage or even a split section would work.
Road position should help but it will be very hard. Then again in his case with own funding it's maybe not so critical.

As for Tidemand I warned already when the two starts were announced in January that I really hope he has a real program what to do after those two events... other than expect that some money will suddenly show up. So far it doesn't look like it.

[racerx1979]

Greensmith will be lucky if he can be in the top 5-6 at any moment in the rally. He will be nowhere close in the long gravel stages. Will be minutes behind. It's part of the game. WRC is a completely different level. Most newcomers will struggle. Suninen is just a really talented driver. Lappi had some good testing with the Yaris before he drove his first event. GG is nowhere near these guys. Just my opinion, but hope I am wrong.

[EstWRC]

[Allez Andruet]

For me the most interesting thing this weekend will be Lappi's performance. His road position should be quite perfect and there aren't that many additional excuses available. It's his third time in Portugal in a World Rally Car, and after a dreadful start of the season (excl. the somewhat-lucky-second in Sweden) it's more than about time to actually deliver something for the team.

[mknight]

While obviously not a good season for Lappi he did actually manage 2nd place in his 2nd start in the car, no matter how lucky (with the friday semi-roll), he is still relatively new and changed teams.

If you want to focus on Finnish drivers why not talk about the elephant in the room?

[EstWRC]

Tänak saying to estonian media that Friday will be very hard for the frontrunners because it has been so warm and dry. Expects Saturday to be the roughest for the cars.

[Allez Andruet]

While obviously not a good season for Lappi he did actually manage 2nd place in his 2nd start in the car, no matter how lucky (with the friday semi-roll), he is still relatively new and changed teams.

If you want to focus on Finnish drivers why not talk about the elephant in the room?

So far Lappi's had six outings in his new team. To manage to get one 2nd place out of those is not exactly a championship caliber resume, if you ask me.

No need to focus on Finnish drivers. I'd much rather talk about Elephant Stone if that's the theme.

[doubled1978]

Haven´t heard anything, but I´m sure it´s about money.
And with funding for one or two rallies, you will never end up in the top.

His lack of speed on the two rallies won’t have made finding further funding any easier...it seems if you go down the rental route, you have to be prepared to play high stakes or you just won’t impress anyone. If he set a few fast times but had a few incidents, he might have done enough for someone to give him a test at least..

[doubled1978]

Sweden, his home-event, with good smooth surface and some protective snowbanks was quite logical and perfect...
Are there any news about Tidemand? There were talks about maybe 6 outings this year, in the beginning of the year.

I know that Sweden was of course as a one off an easy choice, and probably he found some sponsors because of that, but I’m just saying that now if he could have had his chance over again, would he think that doing two rallies such as Portugal and Sardinia back to back, similar set-up, testing relevant to both events etc, would he have had a better chance to prove himself....

[doubled1978]

For me the most interesting thing this weekend will be Lappi's performance. His road position should be quite perfect and there aren't that many additional excuses available. It's his third time in Portugal in a World Rally Car, and after a dreadful start of the season (excl. the somewhat-lucky-second in Sweden) it's more than about time to actually deliver something for the team.

Personally I think it just shows how tricky the C3 is to set-up and drive fast on all surfaces. Ogier in my opinion has been immense this year to keep dragging the results from it, but even he is having plenty of moments along the way...