couldnt follow Ireland due to Easter vacations,but read all pages here,and watched stage by stage times,and some videos.
So r5 this time hadn t power advantage as some drivers were complaining at Acropolis.
About 208 retirements seems that have a serious problem,and they can t afford to tell the truth due to pr/ecomomic reasons.
All these ''due to broken radiator'' are laughable.Aluminium radiators can repaired at some minutes from local garages worldwide.
So even if a works team haven t got enough spares(lol) can repair very easy the existing 3(lol) ones .
208 uses a stock block 1,6 liter,while fiesta uses a 2 litre cylinder block with less displacement to be ok with regulations.
A 2 litre engine has wider block coolant channels,a 1,6 litre has smaller ones.Maybe the problem starts from this.If this speculation is true,is something difficult to fix.Its really starnge they didn t saw this problem at testing...
Imho from videos i saw, 208 were no way near fabias excellent setup.
Good for Lappi,he really needed a good result.