[WRC] FORUM8 Rally Japan 2024

[TypeR]

This year on Friday Mikkelsen was told to push on a dirty road because of Neuville issues.

Lol.. ,,Mikkelsen to push..''
By the time Neuville gor his turbo issues, Mikkelsen was already a day behind..
Lost almost a minute on SS2 and then ended the day on SS5.

ofc Tanak should have brought it to the finish, but saying he had no pressure is also bs.
3rd drivers are also there to bring home points when fast drivers screw up.. should learn from Sordo.

DD

[deephouse]

Lol.. ,,Mikkelsen to push..''
By the time Neuville gor his turbo issues, Mikkelsen was already a day behind..
Lost almost a minute on SS2 and then ended the day on SS5.

ofc Tanak should have brought it to the finish, but saying he had no pressure is also bs.
3rd drivers are also there to bring home points when fast drivers screw up.. should learn from Sordo.

DD

Somehow Mikkelsen screw up, make up for it and screw again on PS, but if he end up 2nd or 3rd (I honestly believe he would not beat Ogier) on last stage, points would be even, but I think Toyota would win by statistics.

The fact is that Hyundai did fucked up big time with this 3rd driver schedule. They should put Lappi/Mikkelsen in every second rally, missing only those who Sordo attend, but still the team could bring one more vehicle for those occasions, and Sordo would be nominated for points, since he is the most reliable (still). That way both would have enough seat time,
and preparations.

Neuville once again prove how things should be done. He had very unfortunate moment with turbo failure, risk damaging the car even more by driving through so much long stages, fall on 15th place, had minutes of difference and on sunday climb back to gain some valuable points on unbelievable 7th place. In manufacturer it didn't matter since all other crews take out all other points. I mean hr was like that all season. He had many screw moments but never saw that completely destroying moments. Tanak had really big ones. And Ogier, also Rovanpera. Mikkelsen and Lappi are class of his own. They were slow and even then screw things up. And all those things then contributed to results now.

Next year I can expect maybe a little less "careful" approach from everyone, because that fragile component will be removed (even slight impact could turn off unit and have huge role in losing so much time). But having new tire supplier, surely it will be a lot of punctures.

[meh]

Yep, just as expected here.

Tanak makes a championship deciding completely stupid mistake when under no pressure and with instructions NOT to push.

But the estonian fanclub here blames Mikkelsen for losing 2 points on PS (which didn't matter as long as Neuville got beaten by Ogier) or bring up Lappi who last year (in a completely different point system) managed 4th with super-slow safe driving after many retired and crashing out completely on first day/stages both rallies before.

BB

Nation-level generalization here is pure stupidity.

Go back and re-read again what I wrote.

Greetings from Estonia.

[denkimi]

Hyundai should let their 3th and 4th drivers do the full season. More mileage is always better.

[Eli]

Comparing completely uncomparable. Point system, manu champs (all decided, due to Lappi and Suninen crashes last year).

This year on Friday Mikkelsen was told to push on a dirty road because of Neuville issues. Last year Lappi was told to drive as safe as possible to get to finish after Sordo and then Neuville crashed.

Btw. you did notice Lappi was actually behind Mikkelsen in Rally2 car most of Friday last year ?

What I'm trying to say is, putting Mikkelsen for the tarmac event was a stupid desciosion, maybe just maybe if they'd bring in him to other gravel events, say even Chile (as Lappi did crash there last year), might've meant the situation in Japan could've been avoided, that's all. And yes I did notice, but when it comes to tarmac, even though he's not a tarmac expert ( & neither is Mikkelsen), since the Rally1 cars have been introduced, he's managed to finish most of them (4/6) with 2 events on the podium. I mean, whoever thought of putting Mikkelsen in that 3rd car on tarmac after he's been out of the WRC for 4 years...

Also, I never once said it wasn't Ott's own mistake, I'm just saying, he wasn't the only one to have made one. You could tell after the crash he just wanted to burry his head in the sand (understanably).

[CeskyOndra]

A margin for error is so so small at this level, so we can't really blame Tanak here. Of course he made a costly mistake, but mistake happens and after all, he is just a human. No doubt it was fatal for Hyundai.

[rallyfiend]

A margin for error is so so small at this level, so we can't really blame Tanak here. Of course he made a costly mistake, but mistake happens and after all, he is just a human. No doubt it was fatal for Hyundai.

Isn't he literally the only one to blame?! He was 30 seconds in front and still pushing....

[deephouse]

Isn't he literally the only one to blame?! He was 30 seconds in front and still pushing....

It was obvious that he was after drivers title, despite little chances of achieving it, even more when Neuville end on 7th position on saturday and grab 4 provisional points. It was those facts that this crash was much more dramatical than it actualy was.

It was also Cyril's fault before rally. He was all over media that he will not interfere who will win the title, since it will be Hyundai driver (that was decided already at CER). And also that the priority for team is driver title. SO I guess Tanak did get wrong picture. Early in season he said that telling one driver to back for other is not necessary until one will have chance for the title.

Maybe now when both have title under belt, they could be more effective and maybe even Neuville could take a break on Ott, helping each other more, being real team-mates, so the 3rd driver will rarely be needed.

[EstWRC]

Isn't he literally the only one to blame?! He was 30 seconds in front and still pushing....

But you have to look the whole season and bigger picture where the things went wrong, not just one rally. It’s so easy to blame him at the moment cause it happened in the heat of the moment. Had that crash been in the middle of the season then no one wouldn’t care. The decision to put Mikkelsen as third car for tarmac events was utterly stupid since the beginning. We saw in Poland how good he did on gravel.

Ogier binned it for 3 rallies straight and I didn’t see that the fans painted him as such a villain and blamed him for everything as Tänak is being done now.

The reason that Hyundai had a chance at all for manu title were actually the crashes and point losses from Kalle and Ogier, otherwise they would have claimed it earlier already.

Look I’m not overly defending Tänak here, the zero points he got from Colin drivers ratings is fair, the mistake was very bad and costly but we can’t put all the blame on him IMO

[becher]

Isn't he literally the only one to blame?! He was 30 seconds in front and still pushing....

Yes, it was just a mistake that can happen, but because it is Tänak people have to find a reason for the mistake. Be it the gravel crew (which as Pluto said makes hardly any sense) or something else because it couldn't just be a honest slip up.

It is a bit of actio=reactio situation. Tänak fans are looking for a reason why it happened as a result others bring up that it was a costly mistake by him and now we are in an endless loop.