Quote Originally Posted by itix View Post
All right, "does not belong" are maybe too harsh words but really, his only effort worth mentioning was Tour de Corse, and that was achieved on one stage where the result was anything but what we are used to seeing.

Even Mads drove well the entire rally to achieve his 2nd place in Mexico and many other good positions.

Tänak and Kubica deserve to be there on pure pace although I understand that they are debatable.

Evans has had slow results AND crashes so he can't even cut it as a safe driver.

He is for me the least deserving of last year's crop of drivers, and it is fully understandable that he is the only one who is half dropped.

The cover is comical because it looks like Msport just dropped Ogier's greatest challenger (which is hilarious).
Hmm crashes? I don't recall Evans doing many mistakes in 2015, he had quite some reliability issues at the beginning of the season, often in the very early stages. I also don't agree about pace alone, for example I see Evans and Tanak complementary on the same level (slower-more consistent / faster-more mistake prone)...
I really don't see how he is least deserving when he finished 1 point behind Neuville and ahead of Sordo, Paddon (1 round less, to be fair), Tanak, Kubica... how is it possible if he was so slow and accident-prone as you say?
But you're right about the cover, you know how much tabloids make things bigger...