56. Renties Ypres Rally Belgium 2021

[rp]

What i want say with my confusing and senseless post is that Ogier will win in the end

Probably, but hopefully Hyundai will not give away the win for Toyota again and Neuville would win...

[Gio]

I09A7738.jpg

It will be interesting, differtent lines allready during recce

[mknight]

I agree with AnttiL that Ogier won't push max, Neuville will.

So the big question is whether others make so many mistakes that even in "safe mode" but with road position advantage on Friday Ogier wins.
Hard to say how Neuville handles the pressure, quite many examples where he seemingly failed when he had to perform.

I think Tanak will also take it relatively safe and in that kind of driving mode he is slower than Ogier, so depending on how others do I would expect him around 3rd.

No good idea how Evans handles these kind of stages but tarmac is his best surface.
A bit worried about Rovanpera as he is prone to small inaccuraccies/mistakes and here they might quickly result in big issues.

Breen is the biggest uncertainty of the whole event, a lot of experience here even in the same car last year. But bad tarmac history with WRC and so far with Hyundai as well as bad road position. Based on that he looks about as likely to fight for 2nd place as ending 7th...

Don't think Fourmaux will be able to challenge any of the top 6 that don't hit trouble. Off course "calculated" stage wins are possible. As he said himself on multiple rallies, he picks stages he likes and saves tires for them to get stage wins. Often also in combination with others not pushing (Portugal morning stages, Kenya last stage before PS). Similar with Katsuta in Croatia where he won a stage then lost 40s on the stage before/after.

-------

While WRC2 entry is the weakest so far (besides no-show on Safari), it's interesting because it's very hard to pick favorites. On paper 4 out of 5 look almost as likely to win.
Gryazin should have best pure speed, but making it to the end is very unlikely, specially given recent record.
Solbergs recent history is also terrible and has very little experience on this kind of rally and a new car.
So in the end the two Fins might be the biggest favorites, with Suninen maybe a bit bigger one since he drove in Croatia unlike Huttunen who has a new car on top of that. Might be that the new Hyundai will be amazing or they might struggle a lot with setup...or they might get reliability issues.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Rally Ypres manager Alan Penasse told a journalist that he thinks many WRC2/3 drivers have been 'scared off' by the event's tricky reputation.

[mknight]

Rally Ypres manager Alan Penasse told a journalist that he thinks many WRC2/3 drivers have been 'scared off' by the event's tricky reputation.

Maybe a bit but there are lots of other added reasons. Most notably both Toksport and Østberg already have enough starts from early on that they only have 1 or 2 rallies to pick (and have to go to Japan).

Toksport will want to start with both cars at same rally for cost reasons (and teampoints) and for Bulacia it's definitely much better to drive on gravel in Greece.
Østberg has tarmac as weakest surface, so kinda no matter if it was Ypres or Deutschland he would pick gravel instead.
Lappi seems to be signed already and even if not he doesn't have/want to use money for more starts than necessary. So if not signed he would show up in Finland or some rally that he knows like Catalunya.

[focus206]

To me Ypres is too tricky to count much on "home advantage". I wouldn't be surprised to see Ogier or Evans winning, actually I'd say I expect yet another Toyota win.

[Rallyper]

Less than two days to Pick your favourites in Pickems. Friday 1300hrs CEST cut.

[Eli]

Maybe a bit but there are lots of other added reasons. Most notably both Toksport and Østberg already have enough starts from early on that they only have 1 or 2 rallies to pick (and have to go to Japan).

Toksport will want to start with both cars at same rally for cost reasons (and teampoints) and for Bulacia it's definitely much better to drive on gravel in Greece.
Østberg has tarmac as weakest surface, so kinda no matter if it was Ypres or Deutschland he would pick gravel instead.
Lappi seems to be signed already and even if not he doesn't have/want to use money for more starts than necessary. So if not signed he would show up in Finland or some rally that he knows like Catalunya.

Østberg already said last month I think (does feel like a long time since Estonia), that he'll go to Greece, Finland & Spain so obviously that meant skipping Ypres. I'm also guessing they might already know that Ypres definitely won't be in next year's calendar so they rather skip this one and save some of their budget for another event.

[Andre Oliveira]

[mas-racing]

WRC Ypres =Rally 2021 Recce SS Zonnebeke :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os1T9oHtdyI