[WRC] Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2019

[Rallyper]

Well, you could ask Jan VanVurpa. Even if theres a brand of suspension, there´s many way you could "manipulate" those suspension cylinders to get them lighter or whatever. don´t know if that´s what Tommis´team are doing but could be one reason for their suspension to break.

Anyway it´s not Tanaks or Latvalas fault.

[Rallyper]

Btw. Emil Bergkvist is now 2nd in WRC2. Just to let you know. Proud of him. Hope it goes all the way...

[steve.mandzij]

Really? The only one who you could rank as having a worse season is Suninen and even that is probably not right given the difference in experience between him and Latvala.

- Results are horrible there is no doubt about it, after Portugal (and exactly half the season) he will also be last placed driver that drove all rallies.
- Mistakes are also there: Sweden 2x, Corsica at least one puncture was his fault by his own words, Chile crashing out, Portugal don't know yet alllive mentioned heavy landing though.
- Speed is also often not there: Monte slowest Yaris and 5th, Mexico slowest Yaris even though he had best road position, Corsica one of the slowest WRCs whole rally

Ok a driver can have a bad period, but for Latvala this is like his 6th bad period (1st half of last year, whole 2016 etc etc. )

That's the whole point you're missing: he's quick and somewhat consistent, but terribly unlucky. In Corsica, yes, he was really terrible, but from Argentina onwards he's been very quick. Chile was bad luck again, hitting a rock just right to break the driveshaft.

His only real mistake of the season so far was in Sweden, and maybe one of the cuts in Corsica, but he's really not been worse than Suninen, or Evans, or Lappi...

...or Mikkelsen.

[Allez Andruet]

Maybe not, but I would blame the one who gives them a budget, not the production team itself.

Yes, very clever.

[TypeR]

holy sh*t how big the damper actually is

[EstWRC]

Tänak saying in media zone that the damper was gone already 25kms before the end

[Pršljen]

Latvala wan't doing anything remarkable in first part of the last season either. Finland was some kind of turning point, not only for him but also for Toyota's run in winning the title.

Tanak somehow survived the last stage, it should be much easier tomorrow and hopefully for Tanak, Meeke will stay ahead of Neuville. Fingers crossed for Ogier's and Citroen's mistake finally, it's about time.

[denkimi]

Sure, but the Toyota in 2017 was an absolute tank and still managed to take maximum points in it's second rally. Toyota must have really overdone it in the diet department, but considering how well the car looks to handle, and how strong their engine is, I reckon they could take the extra weight penatly of donning it in some stronger armor.

That said, I believe Tanak is something else. He's pulled times thought impossible on various occasions on single rallies, be it from the front of the starters or with a damaged power steering or whatever. He's really, really, reeeeeally good.

He was close but not as good as ogier when they both had the same car. The only thing that's changed since then is the car they drive.

I know some people like to believe in fairy tales, but we all know that he would not be as dominant in an other car.
We've all seen what happened with the dominant ogier as soon as he wasn't driving that vw anymore.

[spiderem]

Current championship standing without PS:
Ogier: 134
Tanak: 137
Neuville: 125

[KKS]

Like always it looks like Ogier will have the last laugh, while being nowhere near as fast. While the others relentlessly fight for victories while breaking their cars their goes him picking up every single possible point.

He do this trick 3 year in a row so far