WRC2 Pro & WRC2 2019

[Jarek Z]

After his hard crash on Barum Rally Gryazin pulls out his entry for Rally Turkey. They won't fix the crashed car.
So Gryazin's next events are Rallye Deutschland and then Wales Rally GB:
https://gryazin.com/gryazin_will_miss_wrc_turkey

[Mirek]

IMHO this shell is worth of scrap metal.

[mknight]

Lot of interesting stuff to look forward to this weekend:

- will Rovanpera be able to fight with Kopecky also here? (Kopecky already started to talk about possible team orders btw)
- Østberg never really showed top speed on tarmac, how will he perform in this competition?
- Camilli had good speed here before, so will new Fiesta (finally) show some speed?
- Lefebvre probably has one of his last chances to show that he is fast against good competition and have some hope for a (paid) future

[Jarek Z]

Lot of interesting stuff to look forward to this weekend:

The rally is over so it's time for some answers

- will Rovanpera be able to fight with Kopecky also here?

No. Rovanpera went off the road on stage 8, lost over 4 minutes and finished over 3 minutes behind Kopecky. Kopecky is the winner of WRC2 Pro.

- Østberg never really showed top speed on tarmac, how will he perform in this competition?

Ostberg hasn't shown much speed also in Germany. He finished 4th (last) in WRC2 Pro.

- Camilli had good speed here before, so will new Fiesta (finally) show some speed?

Hmm... I don't know. On the one hand Camilli and the new Festa finished second in WRC2 Pro, just 1 minute behind Kopecky, but on the other hand it was only because of Rovanpera's mistake on SS8...

- Lefebvre probably has one of his last chances to show that he is fast against good competition and have some hope for a (paid) future

I'm afraid that Lefebvre hasn't taken advantage of this chance. On the one hand he has shown that he is fast against good competition (he was leading WRC2 until SS9), but on the other hand he crashed again and lost the rally...

[Jarek Z]

Interesting fact - Nikolay Gryazin, strongly criticized for his constant crashes in the Barum Rally thread (see https://www.motorsportforums.com/sho...Dn-2019/page16), is the new leader of WRC2:

1 Nikolay Gryazin (73)
2 Benito Guerra (69)
3 Pierre-Louis Loubet (63)
4 Ole Christian Veiby (50)
5 Kajetan Kajetanowicz (48).

[AnttiL]

Interesting fact - Nikolay Gryazin, strongly criticized for his constant crashes in the Barum Rally thread (see https://www.motorsportforums.com/sho...Dn-2019/page16), is the new leader of WRC2:

1 Nikolay Gryazin (73)
2 Benito Guerra (69)
3 Pierre-Louis Loubet (63)
4 Ole Christian Veiby (50)
5 Kajetan Kajetanowicz (48).

Number of rallies done:
Gryazin 6
Guerra 4
Loubet 4
Veiby 5
Kajetanowicz 4

[RS]

The whole WRC2/Pro class is a joke really.. not the quality of drivers because there are some good ones but the way whole thing works, or rather doesn’t.

Gryazin in Germany was obviously under strict instructions to finish, which he proved capable of doing. But he was much slower in the process.

Ostberg’s pace wasn’t that bad actually but his punctures ruined things for him. Camilli also had some better stages but I think all that needs to be considered in the context of Kalle’s crash, and Kopecky subsequently cruising.

[mknight]

Jarek you just look on how people finish almost completely ignoring the pace.

- Rovanpera was much quicker than expected relative to Kopecky imo, how "over" the limit he was is obviously another question
- Østberg was kind of ok ish, not bad not great, especially considering his tarmac experience and speed in other cars
- Camilli was actually quite good imo, certainly much better than expected after Finland
- Lefebvre had good speed which was a bit surprising, but since he didn't finish I don't think teams bosses will suddenly start calling him

[RS]

What were Camilli’s penalties about?

It looks like Kopecky did his comfortable pace and waited for others to screw up (he did that in Barum too). Not the most exciting way but it often works..

[Rally Power]

The whole WRC2/Pro class is a joke really.. not the quality of drivers because there are some good ones but the way whole thing works, or rather doesn’t.

+1. Really hoping the FIA gets back to a single WRC2 category next year as it's pretty clear the series are now less competitive than before the split; besides, in some cases the fastests private drivers (mainly Polo users) can beat Citroen or Ford works drivers and even match, here and there, Rovanpera or Kopecky.