Quote Originally Posted by er88 View Post
You can understand a driver being a bit off the pace if his confidence is flaky, or the car isn't perfect. But with Mikkelsen, I can't understand HOW slow he can be at times. His times are a disaster, and the car has been on the pace as proved by Neuville and Loeb (who hasn't driven on gravel like this in like 6/7yrs). Mikkelsen said he'd be better today but even Suninen and Lappi have left him behind.

It's going to come to the point where if Mikkelsen can only do well with Hyundai on certain rallies, they'll only offer him a partial campaign for next year or nothing at all. I said his manager should do everything he can do get him to Msport regardless of whether Hyundai offer him an extension, because he can't compete with Neuville anyway and it's now rightly Neuville's team in the same way VW was Ogier's. Mikkelsen and Hyundai both had eyes on him fighting with Thierry for championships titles when he first got the contract, he was never meant to be just a points collector and backup...
You can make as much stupid analysis as you want, but you know nothing about the team orders Mikkelsen is under.