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30th July 2018, 12:56 #11
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- May 2005
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My opinions:
Rally as a whole
Sadly some of the narrow roads were not much fun to watch online as they were so narrow that the cars were driving on rails. I understand it's not easy to pick up the route but in some cases I'd rather see typical Finish roads with chicanes rather than extremely narrow roads.
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Teams
Citroen - very good with both cars being able to set top times. Strange fuel issue on Friday evening cost Breen possible 5-6 place. (cause he'd also get better starting position)
Toyota - I wrote before that anything but 2 cars on podium is a bad and they delivered. Not surprisingly they were dominant to the point of boring. Off course it's not much surprise given all 3 of their drivers like these stages and the unlimited testing they can do on the same stages as well. Just hope we are not heading into 2014-2015 VW style dominance.
Hyundai - overall quite bad, not really unexpected after last year. That said Paddon (only car with very good road position whole weekend) did show good speed and finished well and Neuville was somehow surprisingly fast on PS. (last 1/4 of the stage from him was pretty crazy though)
Msport - I rank them as worst of the rally, last year Evans and Sunninen were fighting with Toyotas, these year they were clearly behind both Toyota and Citroen and not much faster than Hyundai (if at all given the road position differences). The gamble with new parts for Ogier also didn't pay off and it might take them a while to find the right setup for the rest of the car now. (like it did for Hyundai after their 2018 aero updates).
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Drivers
Good
Řstberg - For me he is the driver of the rally as it was pretty much unexpected. The most surprising part for me was that he stayed on top for all 3 days and not just Friday as he usually does.
Tanak - Extremely good performance on Friday morning, only reason I rank him behind Řstberg is that it was pretty much expected he will do well.
Paddon - Stable and fast just behind Toyotas. Specially the "stable" part is important.
Suninen - fastest Fiesta whole weekend, sure he did have 1 big moment, but last year he had like 5 of those and was still behind Evans.
Neutral:
Latvala - good driver after Friday morning and considering his season so far. But many put him as main favorite and specially the first stage on Friday seemed that he was just too nervous.
Breen - good stages times, but the Friday puncture that cost him a chance for podium was his fault. Unlucky with the fuel issue.
Neuville - obviously suffering from road position whole weekend. Very good push on PS.
Bad:
Mikkelsen - well the Friday off (which was his mistake) cost him the whole rally, with cleaning for 2 days. But the off was his mistake and even before it he was barely ahead of Neuville who was first on road.
Lappi - Slowest Toyota, crash when not under much pressure. But the worst part for me is how he lost some 15s in a stall and then lost 15 more during rest of the stage and said how "win is gone" after one stage....
Evans - Nowhere near last year and slower than Suninen
Ogier - Fighting with setup all weekend and not able to even beat teammates
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yes, it is. it just uploaded by dirtfish.
WRC Testing