Quote Originally Posted by Simmi View Post
I'm wondering whether Mikkelsen will jump back into a 2016 Polo. Surely has to be better than beating the WRC2 crop. He can probably take time out of Lefebvre on the stages in the 2016 car. He got asked at a stage end - when will you be back in a '17 car? And they way he responded (repeating: "In a 2017 car?") just implied maybe he had something else up his sleeve. Might be me reading too much into it.

That said - with Portugal being a mandatory WRC2 round then there's a bit of a decision to make there along with Skoda team bosses. I know they have Tidemand doing really well too - but still. If Mikkelsen (or any WRC2 driver) was to miss Portugal - I assume they can still score points in WRC2 for the rest of the year - just not then eligible for championship? Do they disappear from the championship table for instance?
No, they can have WRC2 points without entering Portugal (ie. not all of DMack WRC2 prize winners are doing Portugal),
but they can´t replace Portugal (or Germany/Wales) with any other rally, so maximum number of events without Portugal is 6.