Lukyanuk

[Miika]

The main problem is/was, the clock wasn´t actually ticking today. Not until Thursday.

[Mariusz]

He is not the first one who made a mistake during a pre event testing and won't be the last one. But nothing is over for him, he is fine, nothing broken, right? So who knows, maybe his next time will be sooner than anybody expects. And if not, well, he's still a fast driver, just without enough money to practice.

[janvanvurpa]

I feel for him - a fabulous opportunity, and it's ended before it really started. Should he really have been pushing so hard in testing? Probably not, but you never learn by driving slowly - even at a test.
Just shows that rallying is a 'cruel mistress' - unlike a circuit racer, you can't get away with mistakes - you're in the trees and the car is severely damaged.

Some drivers seem to get plenty of chances, without proving anything - yet this seemed to be his only chance. Sometimes the WRC seems like a 'closed shop'.

I hear you there on the "closed shop" thing, and how "this is the ONLY chance' for this guy or that and yet others can be "heroes" regardless.. There was that American guy who I think did 3 seasons before once not crashing on either SS1 or SS2 and limping around under Stupor Rally rule...What was his name? Ben Klock or something... Sure he was never even half serious driver, but dozens of times carshing car and no 4 -5 pages of 'the sky is falling"..We shimply shurgged and said that's how it goes, here's another couple of hundred thousand GBP for Malcolm and everything is fine...

[Simmi]

Comparing him with Block completely misses the point. It's not about ability it's about funding. It wouldn't be a closed shop for Lukyanuk if he had money. He doesn't and he blew a great shot to potentially attract more backing in the future.

[janvanvurpa]

Comparing him with Block completely misses the point. It's not about ability it's about funding. It wouldn't be a closed shop for Lukyanuk if he had money. He doesn't and he blew a great shot to potentially attract more backing in the future.

Not comparing him to Klock..Lukie has gobs of talent, and clearly knows how to drive;

the other gobs of money....

I'm sorta hinting that the main problem is he says: money..
If he had money from "someplace' then he's be on the start of SS1, all problems solved..
Its a comment on the central and cynical role of money in what once had vestiges of a sport in it..

[Rallyper]

In my opinion this crash had nothing to do with being unfortunate. Had been on SS1 when the clock is ticking, then fine, but on a pre-event test before the most important start of his career, on his first run in Fiesta WRC, on first kilometres into the stage, not knowing how the car behaves, not knowing how the road behaves. He had limited test mileage (we don't know that for a fact), but still, why? Don't get me wrong, Lukyanuk is great character and simple pleasure to spectate on stages. After Otepää the question was why team bosses aren't fighting over him. After a maneuvor like today, if you were Capito, Matton or Nandan, would you give this guy a car?

Yes, for sure. Remember the great CMR!

[HarriK]

Heard that there might be chance still that Luky would be in rally start line... I still wonder...

[danon]

Loeb did it - champ
Ogier did it - champ
Kankkunen did it - champ
Sainz did it - champ
Makinen did it - champ
Solberg did it - champ
McRae did it - champ etc... etc...

Who doesn't? - You name it he dose it.
It's part of the game finding the limit.
There is a sign from above he got away intact.
Better crash prior the event than on the event itself.
If he's given the chance to start he could still turn into a surprise.

(Click on the pic to play the vid)

[SubaruNorway]

Heard that there might be chance still that Luky would be in rally start line... I still wonder...

Has anyone seen Henning's car? Like normal to not hear a single thing though, you usually know if he's there or not in shakedown...

[samWRC]

Has anyone seen Henning's car? Like normal to not hear a single thing though, you usually know if he's there or not in shakedown...

I noticed in service area that Motorsport Italia, which runs Rendina's Mitsubishi, was in the place where Henning's team should have been so I don't know if he is going to start.