Breen did the AAROVA Rally yesterday, previous event of BRC. He won the event, not difficult being the only WRC car at the start. On his social media there's some onboard images showing the conditions he had. Ypres could be similar, it's safe to say it can't be much worse than this weekend was...

Answering the comparison between Germany and Ypres, well, there isn't... Especially because we're in a different season now. Ypres has a lot of junctions indeed, and very fast sections in between, as AnttiL pointed out.

Some things typical for Ypres which you don't see much in other events:

- Ditches on both sides of the road on most places, if you're off, you lose a lot of time. In traditional years spectators help you out, if you are lucky, with a time loss varying between half a minute and a couple of minutes. This year there won't be (m)any spectators to help...

- Different types of asphalt/concrete. There are a lot of different types of tarmac/concrete on the stages, the surface and grip can change every corner. Also the grip level isn't linear from dry to wet. Sometimes it's surprising, and there's not so much margin alongside the road. It's important for drivers to be able to read and understand the grip levels. For Evans, Ogier and Neuville I don't expect a huge problem here.

- Cuts. There are lots of cuts everywhere, for a normal Ypres Rally all cuts are very visible already one month before the event (illegal recce anyone?). And guess what, as most of those who make all these cuts are amateurs, half of them is completely unnecessary. But eventually, if one starts cutting, all the others often have to follow (due to mud or gravel thrown onto the road making cutting the only possible line to follow). Some are on grass, there the road usually stays clean, if it's dry... With wet weather however they will destroy the grass and throw mud onto the road. Then there's cuts which will throw a lot of loose gravel onto the road. Sometimes it's just a wheel off the road, sometimes half of the car is in the cut, leaving the car hanging under an angle (https://scontent.fbru2-1.fna.fbcdn.n...2b&oe=5FA8E624). Also important to notice is how the transition from the cut back to the road goes. Sometimes there's an edge of the road, which makes it dangerous for having punctures. Especially on concrete roads it's something to consider. Sometimes it's better to go in only half as much as the others do, sometimes you have to go all the way. Also if it's wet, the cut gets destroyed by every car passing. It could lead to a lot of punctures in the second loop where drivers will not expect it. How you dive into that cut doesn't really matter, how you get out of it, back onto the road, does. And that's the most difficult part.

- Mud on the road from farmers. It's harvesting season, farmers are on their fields with tractors, each time they drive back onto the road they leave a lot of dirt which then gets spread by all other traffic on that road.

In short, the gravel crews will have a very important task to do, it will be just as important as in Monte Carlo, if not more... Fortunately there are quite a lot of straights in this event, leaving a lot of room for the codrivers to add as much info as needed.