[WRC] Rally Estonia 15-18 July 2021

[AndyRAC]

I'm not sure who measured the speed, but here in Belgium he would have lost his drivers license. The police would come and pick it up in the service parc.

190kph in a 90kph is not a slight indiscretion; it's a massive breach. So much for the FiA Road Safety campaign.....it's all a bit toothless. One wonders if a Junior driver did similar, what the sanction would be.

[Franky]

Never really paid too much attention to these speeding fines because for a WRC crew the fine barely makes a dent.

Went through the sporting regulations and regarding fines:

34.3.4Penalties for infringements during the competition element of the rally:

a) First infringement: –Speeding: A fine of €25 per km/h over the speed limit, applied by the Clerk of the Course;–Other than speeding: A penalty will be applied by the Stewards.

b) Second infringement: –Speeding: A fine of €50 per km/h over the speed limit, applied by the Clerk of the Course;–Other than speeding: A penalty will be applied by the Stewards.

c) Third infringement: A 5-minute time penalty applied by the Clerk of the Course.

d) Fourth infringement: Disqualification applied only by the Stewards

And in the Stewards Decision No. 13, under Decision point 2, they say suspension for one event happens if "commits any speeding offence exceeding 30% or more of the applicable speed limit." So I presume the moment the Clerk of the Course starts looking at speeding is when it exceeds 30% the speed limit. In a 90 km/h zone it means exceeding the speed limit by at least 27 km/h.


If my presumption about exceeding speed limit by minimum 30% is the moment they start writing fines, then ... How the hell can they preach about road safety?!

I can understand tyre and brake warming, but absurd speeding regardless the reason behind it not. And €25 per km/h for a works crew/team... A slap would be more effective. In Crotia Ogier got 2000 Euros for ignoring a red light. So one red light equals speeding 80kmh over the limit.


If someone knows more about the practices of speeding fines, could you please share more how it actually goes?

[Portimao]

No position change in top 10 since SS10 to the end (SS24), no position changes in top5 since SS8. It's quite unbelievable that no one did not have any dramas, punctures and/or technical issues during 2 full days which could cause position change damage. All dramas were done in Friday.

https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...-estonia-2021/

Zrzut ekranu 2021-07-18 204854.jpg

Yep, it wasn't quite exciting rally to be honest.

[AnttiL]

Very similar to Finland 2018, everything happened on Friday morning, after that the top 6 changed only through team orders.

[mknight]

For me the biggest disappointment was actually Evans. Beforehand I was expecting him to be clearly ahead of Ogier and Neuville and fight with Breen. In the end he was somewhat invisible the whole rally.
Maybe there is some truth in J. Porters speculation that Evans struggles with setup for soft gravel Pirellis as basically the whole rally was on them.

Suninen had terrible rally, but that wasn't entirely unexpected and he also had issues that weren't his fault. But even when car was working fine he was never clearly faster than Greensmith.

Rovanpera delivered, just like Breen (except almost ripping off a wheel on Saturday evening). Both have the same "problem" atm though. Only good results from fast gravel/snow rallies. Rovanpera has plenty of other rallies to do well on in the future, Breen is much more unsure.

Tanak's weekend totally reminded me of Meeke. Starts by jumping half car off the road on first run of shakedown. Gets puncture after off on SS3 (check onboard), then tops it by driving completely off on next stage.

[SubaruNorway]

Very similar to Finland 2018, everything happened on Friday morning, after that the top 6 changed only through team orders.

But then we had the exiting fight between Mads and Jari for 2nd

[PGrally]

Rally Estonia 2021 WRC, Jumps, Beautiful Sideways
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVqErAXHXAw

[dimviii]

Today with some technical issues brought a lot of stress in the car, twice the car wouldn’t start, and we were late to the TC two stages before the finish. At the end our gap was only down to 10s. We knew if there was a strategy to play we had to be with more than 10s ahead of Sébastien so the Power Stage was very crucial for us as well.

Q:
Was that lateness to the time control due to the starter motor?
TN:
Yes.

What about the next event in your home country, the Ypres Rally in Belgium, an iconic event… are you feeling alright by the way, have you got a bit of hay fever or something?
TN:
No, I don’t know. I’m struggling with a lot of pain in my right eye since this morning. It’s getting a little bit better. Martijn [Wydaeghe] was driving on the road sections because I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t feel well all day but in the end the job is done.

https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-k-rovan...rk-be-position

[tommeke_B]

I’m struggling with a lot of pain in my right eye since this morning. It’s getting a little bit better. Martijn [Wydaeghe] was driving on the road sections because I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t feel well all day but in the end the job is done.

Can't see enough to drive the road sections but can see enough for setting 4 fastest stage-times? Sounds strange to me.

[Eli]

But then we had the exiting fight between Mads and Jari for 2nd

Which is why I said earlier and not for the first time, we need another manufacturer so another 3 drivers can challenge for top honours and make it more tense. 3 manufacturers is simply not enough, especially when one of them have 2 drivers(ish).