Rally Liepaja 2021

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Rather disappointing rally in terms of battles due to the road position tactics. At least the clear fastest driver won - excellent job by Gryazin.

[Sulland]

If Mikelssen gets his minute back he could finish second. Other top positions look fairly settled.

And when will we know the result of that issue. They have had all day to figure it out.
Will we know before the prize seremony?

[Lead]

Happy for Gryazin, he was no doubt fastest driver in this rally and deserved the win. I bet Gryazin and Mikkelsen will be main contenders in Estonia for win in WRC2 class.

[RS]

And when will we know the result of that issue. They have had all day to figure it out.
Will we know before the prize seremony?

I agree, it's not nice to leave these things hanging.

Mature drive by Gryazin this weekend. He was clearly fastest.

Mikelssen actually better than i expected this time, seems he's getting on top of the car/setup now.

Kudos to Breen/MRF.. yes, they benefited from the running order trick, but they were still fast when on a more level playing field too.

[mknight]

Good job from Gryazin. If it takes going in "safe mode" to finish the rally then that's the speed he should go, not flat out and have a moment every second stage (Poland, Croatia). But I praised him already after Portugal and he went back to his previous style in Poland.

Good rally from Mikkelsen, 2nd fastest and clearly beating Lukyanuk from one position behind him on the road on Saturday as well as catching Breen today. It's obvious there was some confusion at start of SS2 and he certainly didn't gain any sporting advantage from it. Whether or not they keep the penalty is then a political decision that will decide who leads ERC. Good call on letting him keep road position for today at least, else the rally would be basically over and it wouldn't matter how they decide on penalty.


With regards to qualifying and road position, it was clear already after half of first day in Poland that this will be an issue that people will try to exploit. FIA should have reacted at once, not wait until after this rally (and no gravel rally soon). Kinda reminds me of WRC powerstage issues. Ogier did it in Sweden but FIA didn't react until after Mexico when Neuville and Tanak did it.

[sindroms]

I think next stage ss11 will bring some surprises with a lot of guys pushing, its run only once, is not long, but its very tricky. If I remember correctly second part of the stage runs on very narrow forest road where you need very precise pacenotes to fully commit. You can get caught out very easily.

Very good observation👍 I am still in SS11 in this forest part which this year is the first part. Very spectacular driving from all crews but very professional still. Pietarainen was on the limit there enjoyed us by small close call.

[Lead]

More the time passes, more it seems they wont call off 1min penalty to Mikkelsen. Its just makes no sense to delay decision for so long.

[Andre Oliveira]

[Lead]

This season for Veiby has been brutal so far...

[tommeke_B]

This season for Veiby has been brutal so far...

Veiby's been quite brutal too in the past... You could doubt if the penalty would have been similar for another crew, I'm not so sure.