Rally Croatia 2022

[Eli]

Amazing performance by Kalle, I knew he improved but this is even more than I expected. Unfortunately, I see a very one-way championship...
Good job by Tänak, almost did the impossible. Neuville had the potential of winning this, but in the end he's lucky to get the podium.
At least we saw that Hyundai is up there in speed. But with their worse reliability than Toyota, too hard to bring the fight to Kalle + Toyota.

Although we still don't know their pace on gravel, good thing we have a string of 5 gravel events now to see what's what.
Anyhow, good return to form from Tänak getting his first podium since Finland last year, finally looked somewhat pleased with the car this weekend and despite his end of power stage comment, I really hope we see both him & Neuville fighting for the win in Portugal.

[Danny0405]

A little disappointed by Tanak’s loss as it would have helped to balance the championship.
But still it’s not against Kalle and he has made a superb job here.

For Neuville, really a difficult rally. But in the end, when we take a close look at it, it’s almost a miracle than the gap in the championship with Rovanpera is less than 30 points when we saw all the issues (and 1 or 2 mistakes) he had from the beginning of the season and Rovanpera’s level since Mid-Monte Carlo.
So I wouldn’t say the championship is over, it will be interesting to see how Rovanpera will handle the 7-out-of-8 gravel rallies series

Breen, we cannot say it is a good drive. Still 3rd in the championship but more because of the issues of the other (and only 1 point ahead of Loeb). And the 3 next rallies will be difficult for him (quite a long time he hadn’t made a slow gravel rallye and his road position will not be good).

Evans, completly lost here it seems. at least he brings the manufacturer points.
Lappi, difficult rally overall with a lot of mistakes even if he did some good times at some moments (road position?).
Difficult to assess the rest except Fourmaux with another big mistake; not sure he will be in Portugal with this mistake; maybe M-Sport should give him a rally off to end this bad streak.
Greensmith a lot of punctures so difficult to know; same for Loubet; Katsuta was not really good but we know he is not good on tarmac and he did it to the end at least.

In WRC-2, superb performance from Rossel with reliability and consistency.
Lindholm makes also some very quick times.
For me, except Mikkelsen which is a special case, the two drivers that could hope some program in Rally1 next year (or at least the most ready) if they confirm this season.
Great performance also by Kajto even if I think he will be short for title against Mikkelsen (and even Rossel )
A little disappointed by Cais’ performance even if, at least, he succeeded to go the finish without mistake.

[EstWRC]

Virves 4 min.early in to TC. and lost his win

"insert big facepalm picture here"

[Danny0405]

Virves 4 min.early in to TC. and lost his win

"insert big facepalm picture here"

Yeah incredible mess in WRC-3 Junior with Pajari and Armstrong mistakes, this mistake from Virves (+ Kimathi out for Power Stage).
In the end, the ones who benefit from it are Joona (clearly not the fastest and most potential driver but he almost never makes mistake), Armstrong (even with his mistake, he lost almost nothing with the mistakes of the other + his stage wins) and Franceschi (decent drive for a return).
Really difficult what will happen for the rest of the season.

[Hüttünen]

I don't think Breen had the speed on this rally anyway. A careful aproach to avoid major problems might have been best for him on this rally.

Not in this rally particulary but Breen is famous to drop down on Sundays when big points are in the table. Monte Carlo was a good example. And many rallies last year.

Rovanperä has more pace than any other driver in WRC. He don’t want to throw 12 points away. That’s a winning attitude. He is not a loser.

[flat_right]

It was a very eventful and exciting rally! Really enjoyed it. Big congratz to Kalle, what an amazing rally and PS stage! A bit like Tänak a few years ago with Toyota. Also very happy for Tänak and Hyundai. In Monte, they were nowhere, but now at least Neuville was on par with Kalle. It was a bit difficult to evaluate Tänak's real pace as he was hindered by road position and later the gap was too big to really push. Anyway, as Hyundai has said that they are more prepared for gravel so let's see what will happen in the next rallies.

[Pršljen]

Well, one off for Rovanpera and Tanak/Neuville win and we again have an exciting championship. Everything is still open.

[sti123]

It was a very eventful and exciting rally! Really enjoyed it. Big congratz to Kalle, what an amazing rally and PS stage! A bit like Tänak a few years ago with Toyota. Also very happy for Tänak and Hyundai. In Monte, they were nowhere, but now at least Neuville was on par with Kalle. It was a bit difficult to evaluate Tänak's real pace as he was hindered by road position and later the gap was too big to really push. Anyway, as Hyundai has said that they are more prepared for gravel so let's see what will happen in the next rallies.

Fully agree. I would add one point, it seams the Hyundai has built a really strong car. Neuvilles crash at PS was quite e big one and still all the wheels were attached to the car.

[EstWRC]

I was only concentrating on Kalle vs Tänak time on power stage and didn’t notice that they had such a huge gap to others. Wow

[meh]

I was only concentrating on Kalle vs Tänak time on power stage and didn’t notice that they had such a huge gap to others. Wow

Yeah, write it down for trivia: PS point was taken with losing 25.8sec. By RC2 car.