[WRC] Central European Rally 2023 (26-29 Oct)

[Mirek]

These are the most spectacular conditions for spectating an asphalt rally

[Mirek]

20 seconds slower than in the first run on complete wet...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Tanak looks totally on it here.

[meh]

SS13 Neuville vs Tänak
Split 1 - Neuville 0.1 sec faster
Split 2 - Tänak 0.1 sec faster
Split 3 - level
Split 4 - level
...

and split 5 Neuville is losing 2.7 to Tänak and at the end Ogier wins the stage with 0.1 sec

[EstWRC]

Great stage from Ott. He said he finally tried a bit more

[dimviii]

something happened to Neuville at 5th split.

[Mirek]

Great stage from Ott. He said he finally tried a bit more

You could see from the camera mounted behind the crew that he was really pushing.

[EstWRC]

something happened to Neuville at 5th split.

The one rain tire overheated is my guess

[seb_sh]

By pure speed, there is clear top4. Or it is actually pure dominance by Rovanperä, as most of gravel rallies he has huge disadvantage to collect stage wins from first days due to road cleaning.

Ogier has done less rallies, but when he does, he usually has road position advantage.

Stage wins this season:
* 67 Rovanperä
* 32 Ogier
* 31 Neuville
* 29 Tänak

And then comes others:
* 16 Evans (10 of 16 from Rally Finland when Rovanperä, Tänak and Lappi were out already)
* 13 Lappi
* 9 Katsuta
* 6 Sordo
* 1 Suninen
* 1 Loubet

So my point is - like I pointed out previously, Evans is collecting points with "not that risky" driving. Without collecting stage wins that much. Others (Tänak, Neuville, Ogier) could fight with Rovanperä.

Also I don't think Neuville has lost all his opportunities to be a champion, there is still chance.

What I would add about Evans is that most of his wins came in some unusual conditions:
2017 GB - DMack special tyres which best suited the conditions (but as Loeb said on all live at the time: yes he has good tired but he still has to use them and drive the car)
2020 Sweden - Strange winter rally with no snow and much shortened route (he adapted best to the conditions)
2020 Turkey - puncture lottery
2021 Portugal - rally of attrition
2023 Finland - the other contenders made mistakes or had tech issues

There were a couple which are more straightforward:
2021 Finland - was actually fast if i remember correctly
2023 Croatia - I suppose he benefitted from others punctures and setup problems but I would say he was pretty fast

Otherwise he spends a lot of time between 5th and 2nd, and actually has a lot of 2nd places: 14

I suppose you can say he lacks some speed but is fast enough to put himself in the position to take advantage of others mistakes and he seems to be able to bring it home when he gets a chance. If I was a team manager I would definitely want him in my team, next to one of the fast guys. As for winning a championship, it's more of a long shot, I would not say impossible but I can imagine he would need an unusual whole season, with issues for others and two other contenders taking points from eachother, going off etc.

[Mirek]

Fourmaux now in the lead of RC2. He lost even more time than Ogier yesterday on the first stage (1 minute against the top RC2).