[WRC] 70th Rally Finland 2021

[Danny0405]

Huge performance by Evans, maybe his greatest. At least, it will give some interest to Catalunya Rally with his battle with Ogier.

Good performance for Breen, 3 podiums in a row, he has shown some consistency at high level even if he benefits from the road position. The only thing is that, as mknight said, he is a little Ostberg-like in his way of dropping along the weekend. But probably enough to secure managers on giving him a full-time seat.

Lappi rather good but not huge considering it was Finland; however, he probably did not take all the risks as this rally was very important for his career. It is probably enough to secure Toyota for next year.

Good run by Suninen with beating Ostberg. Not better than Lappi in Sweden and Portugal with the same car so it will probably not be enough to be in the discussion for Toyota (all the more with Lappi who made the job) but, if he is able to reproduce something similar with the Hyundai Rally2 in Spain, he could be a strong contender for a shared third car with Sordo in 2022 (if the choice is not totally made or if Solberg is still awful in Spain).

Good to see Tanak at this level even if he cannot fight for the win.

Ogier did the job except his issues in the power stage. But with 24 points-margin and two tarmac rallies to go, it is not that bad for the championship and it is the only thing that matters for him.

Quite disappointing for Katsuta, after his bad stint (even if not all of his fault), it was important to finish without mistake and he didn’t succeed all the more than his times were not impressive.

Solberg, I prefer to avoid to tell something... the same for M-Sport for other reasons.

[dimviii]

Adrien FOURMAUX
@AdrienFourmaux

68 meters and the guy puts me a 9/10 Loudly crying face

Do you have to go to the moon to get 10?

[Danny0405]

Last point: strange choice to make Rovanpera starting again today with his back injury and Catalunya so close (especially when we know since how long Dan Barritt is sidelined).
Ok, there is the manufacturer championship thing but they have a good margin in it so I think it did not worth the risk. I hope for him it won’t have consequences for Catalunya.

[dimviii]

Rally Paradise
@rallyparadise
·
1h
#WRC #RallyFinland It was 1st time than no Finnish driver get any stage wins! @EsapekkaLappi
4th place is still better than the most disappointing event in 2003, when Tommi Mäkinen was best Finn taking only 6th place. Luckily EP & @KalleRovanpera
can drive faster than this year..

[doubled1978]

That was a great rally, really enjoyable.
I can only echo what others have said about Evans, brilliant performance. I thought Tanak would have him today.
Shame for Breen he doesn’t seem to quite have the last drop of speed when the real top boys turn it up to 11. That said if he is getting a few full seasons, hopefully he can find that in himself and get to their level.
Sunninen is an interesting one, I think his performance was very good. Clearly some of the frustrations got the better of him with the interview after the last stage. I think Msport are relatively candid about the WRC car development and it’s current level, but the Rally 2 car really is poor and they seem to not realise it, and they have just been shown how poor.

[er88]

What exactly did Suninen say about Msport?

[TypeR]

What exactly did Suninen say about Msport?

,,We did big changes for this rally, we changed the team, we changed the car. Everything working well.
It's nice to be in good, proper team, who is working well and giving everything to make good results.''

[mknight]

However "nasty" it may sound it is clearly visible to anyone that MSport is not doing everything to get results (this year). Simple example here is no testing at all.

Also if you remember after Suninen crashed in first stage in Sardinia without any gravel testing at all since the start of the season (and therefore also without ever driving on gravel Pirellis), Millener said that it was "his (Sunninens) problem" and he should cope with it.

[dimviii]

[Sulland]

Wow, that is not good PR for MSport, but Suninen has not been top notch himself either. But again, everything is cconnected with everything.

,,We did big changes for this rally, we changed the team, we changed the car. Everything working well.
It's nice to be in good, proper team, who is working well and giving everything to make good results.''