Rally Portugal 2022

[meh]

Both made really good performances - why to fight here who did better? They delivered what they could delivered - they fighted for podiums when big guns like Loeb, Ogier, Tänak and Neuville were out. They were not out and took the opportunity. They were away from fight for the win, so they delivered well for their level.

Only 2 weeks to wait, both are hungry for more

[WRCStan]

Katsuta must win that type of fight if he wants to deserve a spot in the main team.

I'm not sure that's even the question, unless you mean just for comparison's sake. But they had different aims. No driver's championship for Sordo, he had absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain for Hyundai in this particular fight, with Tanak and Neuville behind him. True, Taka could have taken points off Hyundai, but Toyota had 1-2 anyway. Maybe his more important lesson was how to drive with a calm head to go 3rd in the driver's champ?

[WRCStan]

Both made really good performances - why to fight here who did better?

We're discussing, not fighting. It's a good place to do it. If you want me to dumb my posts down to things like "wow that was fast" - nah.

[dimviii]

nice clip with Ott
https://twitter.com/ma_ipp/status/1528443991745826819

[EstWRC]

nice clip with Ott
https://twitter.com/ma_ipp/status/1528443991745826819

taken from here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py1zxR8S8rg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhpdDP0kL4

[EstWRC]

[Eli]

Question is, can he make it 4 in a row?

[doubled1978]

Great job by Kalle with a Seb-like performance and puts a big hit to the helmet to Evans and Neuville here.
For Evans, rather good after a bad stint but not enough against Kalle. But big result in the manufacturer championship for Toyota.

On Katsuta, I’ll be a little harsh but it’s only an average result. He was better during the first 2 days last year (team orders on last day) and when you’re competing for a manufacturer job, you have to deliver in that type of situation. A rusty Sordo teaches him a lesson about what it takes to be a real manufacturer driver here whereas he did his first top-3 of the Rallye in the power stage (+ a RC1 Top 3 in the Mickey Mouse stage yesterday). And it is quite coherent with the beginning of the season of the Japanese which is a little lower than last year. The only positive is that he is the best of youngster (except Kalle) and he is 3rd in the championship; but it’s because the others screwed up and I’m not sure it’s a gift with Sardinia and Kenya coming.

For M-Sport, disaster rallie even if 3 cars finished in top 10. Loubet shows some pace sometimes but not regular enough at the moment (but only 2nd race this year). And for Fourmaux, ok, he did it finally to the end but with awful times; reminds me a lot of Camilli.

In WRC-2, excellent and clever job by Rossel even if he was no match for Suninen and Mikkelsen. Big mistake for Suninen and with some consequences: even if he’s fast, why a manufacturer would give a job to someone who screwed a result like this (exactly the difference with Sordo).
Good job by Kajto also.
Ingram a little further but good job also; but not that much points taken to the competitor because of the number of withdrawals.

I think Fourmaux was a little unlucky, steady first loop on Friday was understandable, was on for quickest time on the 1st stage of the second loop and got a puncture. With only 1 spare he had to drive slow for rest of the loop and that gave him a crap road position from then on, no sense in pushing hard after that, better to get the KM’s.
It was a bad error from many to only take 5 tyres on that second loop on Friday.
I was more disappointed in Breen, have been all season. It can’t help in the team that Loeb comes back in and is leading straight away and he is nowhere.

[Bigalstosh99]

I was more disappointed in Breen, have been all season.

I also hoped for more from Breen. But maybe that was not a realistic expectation given that Hyundai typically benched him for much of the first half of recent seasons in favour of Sordo. Will be a fairer scorecard for Breen after Estonia/Finland/Belgium rounds.

[Danny0405]

I also hoped for more from Breen. But maybe that was not a realistic expectation given that Hyundai typically benched him for much of the first half of recent seasons in favour of Sordo. Will be a fairer scorecard for Breen after Estonia/Finland/Belgium rounds.

Yeah, after failing in Sweden, it was clear he would have a bad time between Croatia and Safari considering his level on real tarmac and the fact he didn’t made world-level slow gravel rallies for a while. All the more than his road position is not good with Evans and Tanak having bad results and the shared 3rd car in Hyundai and Toyota.

With a better road position, it should be better in Estonia and Finland. Not that sure about Belgium because a lot of drivers now knows a little better this rallie so it will be harder for him than last year.
For the end of the season, it will depend how much he improves on slow gravel after having missed it so long. Then Catalunya should be hard (don’t know about Japan, it will depend a lot on the weather I think).