[WRC] Wales Rally GB 2019

[mknight]

As for Ogier, I bet he's cursing the moment he signed for Citroen, it's the C3's third year and even with Sebastien, they still haven't found a solution to make that car work in all conditions...to win a championship you have to have the entire package, Ogier knows this and does seem really frustrated, I mean, he pushed like hell in the power stage and still Tanak was 0.5 second faster

If Citroen kept same tarmac pace as they had last year Ogier would actually have a really good shot at the title even with not perfect gravel pace. In Corsica he got saved by a miracle but still 2nd place is much worse pointwise than first now (8 points difference) and Germany was just tragic. If they make the car work on tarmac I think he will be in really good position next year and if they make it work now in Catalunya he still has decent chance this year.

[Eli]

If Citroen kept same tarmac pace as they had last year Ogier would actually have a really good shot at the title even with not perfect gravel pace. In Corsica he got saved by a miracle but still 2nd place is much worse point-wise than first now (8 points difference) and Germany was just tragic. If they make the car work on tarmac I think he will be in really good position next year and if they make it work now in Catalunya he still has decent chance this year.

Yes but they said it themselves at some point in the season ( I think Germany), that they gained the pace on gravel by losing it on tarmac...but now coming to think of it, next year only has two proper tarmac rounds (Monte is kind of special) so...maybe they should continue working on gravel...with that said I hope they will find some solution in Catalunya or Sebastien can say goodbye to his crown....again time will tell....

[EstWRC]

Tänak using more banks than in the snow of Sweden..

Q:
That Power Stage looked like a wild ride…
OT:
Maybe it was not perfect. It was raining quite heavily at the beginning, the grip was low and I had to get some support from the road side. Maybe it was a bit Sweden-spec, but in the end, it paid the bill and we’re happy.



Q:
What do you mean, you didn’t get the tyres you asked for?
TN:
We ended up more soft than we asked for, obviously there was an internal mistake, which can happen. It shouldn’t but it can. We took three soft and two medium and we wanted to take four soft and one medium. We lost 11 more points to Ott. But we can see that now that Toyota has changed the rear wing, we are much closer again – they are not flying again like they were before and we are happy with that.

Q:
Tommi, you’ve closed the gap to Hyundai, how do you feel?
TM: It was a really great result. Great work during the whole weekend under big pressure. With this event is coming bigger pressure, two more rallies to go [in the] fight for the title and it’s great performance. I would say no mistakes at all… plus also that we have this new rear wing which doesn’t allow us to fly away anymore and still he was very performing very well – an even better performance from Ott.


so it seems the new wing has actually reduced the performance then as i understand

rest of the interesting press conference here https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-o-tanak...it-sweden-spec

E: and theres a video of it too https://www.facebook.com/PostimeesSp...214310126/?t=3

[flykas]

So the rear wing change was a downgrade? That is really interesting, does anyone know something more about this?

[meh]

There also can be "mindgames" attempt from Neuville and answer to that with sarcasm from Mäkinen.

[AL14]

Let's face it: the game's over. There's no stopping Tänak. He won't screw it himself, and not even the Yaris would fail him in two consecutive rallies.

Don't jinx!

There also can be "mindgames" attempt from Neuville and answer to that with sarcasm from Mäkinen.

I think too but he's never been good at it. He should just stop it.

[Devillersvideo]

A Excellent weekend in Wales
For me it's better than Finland. The welsh are great host, the landscape is wonderfull and mud is better than dust

https://youtu.be/GMbQ1Bmp314

25 miniature vidéo WRC Wales Rally GB 1.jpg

[Fast Eddie WRC]

So the rear wing change was a downgrade? That is really interesting, does anyone know something more about this?

The original wing was homologated but an error was recently noticed in its shape and positioning.

It was changed at Rally Turkey to make it closer to the rear of the car and follow the bodywork. It now complies with the rules.

I was surprised it took until now for it to be mentioned by the other teams/drivers as it did advantage Toyota for a long time (even though it was legal & homologated).

[AnttiL]

There also can be "mindgames" attempt from Neuville and answer to that with sarcasm from Mäkinen.

This is how I interpret it from the transcription but I should look at the video as well.

[the sniper]

A Excellent weekend in Wales
For me it's better than Finland. The welsh are great host, the landscape is wonderfull and mud is better than dust

https://youtu.be/GMbQ1Bmp314

25 miniature vidéo WRC Wales Rally GB 1.jpg

Great video! We've stood right next to each other! I'm up on the bank at 0:20. We stood next to each other there when you came up there later, I tried to keep out of your way as I guessed from the camera and where you'd stood that you'd be one of the quality You Tube guys! I was also on the apex of the corner on Brenig shown at 0:54, just out of sight to the right. I know I've done my research well when I end up in the best videos.

I'll probably add some more comments later in the week as I've got to go to work, not a perfect event organisationally, but I had a great time. The weather conditions were great for the rally and not too unkind to us spectators. Sorry to be back to normal life now! Oh and just to add to Tanak's Q&A above, on the Powerstage, the rain really did come down just for him, at least where we were near the start of the stage. I think he must have had the most slippery conditions of all the top guys.