Quote Originally Posted by scn View Post
The rally was very good, all stages are very very technical, fantastic to drive and, except Elatia, pass through beautiful places. Probably they are some of the best in the world. But it was not Acropolis the way we knew it. Tarzan, the ex-"toughest stage in Europe and probably in whole world", is now smoother than Finland. The same applies to Pavliani and Eleftherohori. Having driven Eleftherohori during ERC years, I dare say that it was multiple times tougher in ERC than the Eleftherohori I passed with my everyday car this year after two passes of the WRC rally. This is the reason there were no flat tyres, no dramas, no retirements. Someone called it boring. Maybe it was for you that watched it on laptop. Surely it was not boring for the spectator, but I don't remember it being boring for the spectator in its previous form either. Time will tell if the "road-roller" choice is good for the survival of the rally. I keep my doubts. As a driver, I would prefer this "road-roller" form, by far.

P.S. SSS is exactly as NOT said: a travesty.
Good questions indeed. I think this became the rally with least retirements in the whole season so far. Only one factory car from each team (Evans, Neuville, Fourmaux) had an issue which cost time but was fixed on the road section, and then Loubet's customer car broke, with likely older parts than on factory cars.

I'm personally undecided, whether the roads should have been rougher or not. There's good sides to both versions.