Hyundai WRT

[AnttiL]

This has been a polarized year indeed with only the big three winning rallies and others getting only podiums here and there. Breen, Evans, Mikkelsen and Latvala have had ”difficult” seasons, Lappi and Suninen are still rookies and others have only part time seasons.

[mknight]

This has been a polarized year indeed with only the big three winning rallies and others getting only podiums here and there. Breen, Evans, Mikkelsen and Latvala have had ”difficult” seasons, Lappi and Suninen are still rookies and others have only part time seasons.

Yeah that's a fair point.

Basically there are only 4 drivers who you could say have good season:
3 full time (Neuville, Ogier, Tanak) and Sordo

for all others there is some good result here and there but overall less than expected.

If we going for biggest disappointment then Latvala takes it ahead of Mikkelsen for me. Car he developed and fought for title with last year. Now slowest Toyota and with crashes as well. The "suspension failures " that always plagued him are also back. Also an interesting static. Latval has not a lead a WRC event for a single stage this season. Sad I though he was great last season and his mojo got back after 2016.

Mikkelsen is close second, most of the disappointment comes from the contrast between the 3 rounds in Hyundai last year.

Evans would win the award for some british journalists. I still remember Colin Clark claiming at kitchen table after wales that Evans will fight for title this year no matter what car he is in.

[Eric]

Mikkelsens season has been terrible so far, no doubt about that.
But lets not forget, both Portugal and Sardegna looked really good for Mikkelsen until the car broke down. Not his fault and nothing he could do about it. Finland was disappointing but lets give the guy a break. With him coming to Finland with most likely two podiums from the two last rallies, no one would speak about his bad season.

Lets see what he can do the rest of this season and the start of 2019. It took Neuville 4-5 years to adapt to the Hyundai. Mikkelsen has been in the team less than a year....

[AnttiL]

Lets see what he can do the rest of this season and the start of 2019. It took Neuville 4-5 years to adapt to the Hyundai. Mikkelsen has been in the team less than a year....

Like said, he had great pace in Catalunya and Australia but we haven’t seen any of that this year

[mknight]

Like said, he had great pace in Catalunya and Australia but we haven’t seen any of that this year

Nah Sardinia with leading by 14s in first service before car broke.

[GravelBen]

Mikkelsens season has been terrible so far, no doubt about that.
But lets not forget, both Portugal and Sardegna looked really good for Mikkelsen until the car broke down. Not his fault and nothing he could do about it.

In Sardegna the car broke after he had spun it twice and backed it into the bales, so that breakage might have been his fault. Can't say for sure though, maybe it would have happened anyway.

[mknight]

In Sardegna the car broke after he had spun it twice and backed it into the bales, so that breakage might have been his fault. Can't say for sure though, maybe it would have happened anyway.

This is not true and I have no idea where you have it from.
He lost 2nd gear on stage before, check out the replay how it just starts jumping out after making strange noises on multiple brakings. No spins. Then on the stage after that during breaking the gearbox breaks completely and he spins as the gearbox is stuck in gear (note that he needs to change from 3 to 1). What's the real reason for looosing 2nd only Hyundai knows.

[GravelBen]

I got that from watching it live and the day highlights . They showed a small spin in SS6 (maybe spin is the wrong word, more like a half spin and slide wide) and a problem with second gear after that, then a spin again in SS7 and got stuck in reverse up against the bales.

I just watched the WRC+ in-car as well now to check - the one in SS6 is around 4:30, its not much of an impact (not one you would normally expect to break things) but it is enough to stall the car when it hits the berm so its possible the gearbox was weakened then. You don't hear the gear problem until later in the stage.

I can't tell from the in-car if the SS7 spin was stuck in gear or just that he was distracted by the problem and having trouble driving the car without second gear. It obviously wasn't completely broken/stuck because he could select reverse and back up to the bales.

I didn't say it was definitely the spins that damaged the gearbox, just meant that it might have been a factor. I agree that only the team will know what went wrong with it.

[SubaruNorway]

Mikkelsen joking about doing the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon today will be easier than Rally Finland
https://parcferme.no/rally/mikkelsen...-hjelperytter/

[lluisva555]

Our aero review of the new Hyundai i20 AP4++ built by Hyundai New Zealand and Paddon Rallysport that Hayden Paddon drove in the Ashley Forest Rallysprint. Some interesting proposals we might see in the future WRC car

https://wrcwings.wordpress.com/2018/...mic-proposals/