WRC 2019 Thread

[sqdstr 9]

Dytut said:

So C3 with new rear axle. I'm calling Breen taking the win in Argentina. He'll be so bloody hungry to drive now.

And Hyundai used a joker for an engine upgrade for Argentina

[DiRTKiNG808 0]

Ya, I think Breen will be strong. He just needs to keep his head straight and not overdue it. I wonder how the engine upgrade will help Hyundai.

[carpa 70]

DiRTKiNG808 said:

Ya, I think Breen will be strong. He just needs to keep his head straight and not overdue it. I wonder how the engine upgrade will help Hyundai.

[Dytut 3]

Well... Tänak can pull some fair amounts of raw speed from that Yaris when he wants to, I'll give him that  :open_mouth:

[warpengage 1]

Congratulations to Ott Tanak for a great drive and great victory. Great performance by Hyundai as well.

Just one thing bothers me: these power-stage points are dumb. Sordo finishes third, leaves rally with 15 points. Ogier finishes 4th, leaves rally with 16 points. 4th is getting more points than 3rd, just because he did well on one stage. Is this right? Sordo outperformed Ogier during most of the rally, he deserved 3rd. Why should he leave with less points than the guy who finished behind him?

Just return to the good old days of "win the event to get the points you want", please.

[Dytut 3]

warpengage said:

Congratulations to Ott Tanak for a great drive and great victory. Great performance by Hyundai as well.

Just one thing bothers me: these power-stage points are dumb. Sordo finishes third, leaves rally with 15 points. Ogier finishes 4th, leaves rally with 16 points. 4th is getting more points than 3rd, just because he did well on one stage. Is this right? Sordo outperformed Ogier during most of the rally, he deserved 3rd. Why should he leave with less points than the guy who finished behind him?

Just return to the good old days of "win the event to get the points you want", please.

Yeah I kind of agree, the new rules with 5 points is just too much. I'd rather see one power stage per day, where top 2 gets points on friday and saturday and top 3 on sunday.  5 points for just one single stage win is simply too much.

[juu1ius 5]

Well deserved win for Ott! Power stages points are dumb, but it adds extra 'drama' for Live stages and for that, I can't see any alternative to it. 

[Dytut 3]

Gotta say Argentina gave me hope for the rest of the season. I was a bit worried that M-Sport had managed to make the Fiesta dominant, but it was not the case. Great to see Sordo actually keeping Ogier behind even with similar road conditions. 
I would've loved to have seen Meeke take a podium for the drivers title fight, but in the end it turned out allright. Looks like we'll have a proper threeway battle for a while now, Tänak really has upped his game when it comes to being both fast and consistent :-)

[juu1ius 5]

Sordo has been great this year- 2nd, 4th and 3rd, opposite to Evans tbh,  I hope he doesn't end up like Paddon, from winning Argentina to disappointment and bad luck. Mikkelsen is another one who has been under performing. Ford hasn't been dominating, Ogier has been performing quite well - out of his 3 wins, two of them were the events that he was favorite and Mexico he was just flawless. Let's see what happens now as we are back on Europa and on gravel. Portugal should be quite intense, the biggest gap from last year was +23s, 6 different rally leaders and 9 different stage winners. Also it's 2nd time in Portugal for Lappi, lets see how fast he really is. 

[DiRTKiNG808 0]

A little late to the conversation. I thought the rally was great. Tanak did an amazing job. Evans needs to step it up a couple gears. He is lagging behind and needs to start contributing the the manufactures fight.

[RallyDriven 138]

Edit: posted on the wrong post!          

[Dytut 3]

Yeah Evans seem to be doing a Paddon. Getting that win and looking good, then fading into the background :-/ I hope he can recover and start pushing some stage wins soon. I suspect that it's mentally harder for him to not keep up this year though. Last year he could always fall back on the dmacks not being up to for it when he was slower, now he's on the same tyres but the times aren't coming.

But going to be interesting to see how far the Tänak attack will come this year. He's always been fast but not fully consistent, but he really does seem to be on a new level now and the Toyota is starting to deliver.

[Dytut 3]

Well that was a dull and predictable start to Portugal.... 

[carpa 70]

Dytut said:

Well that was a dull and predictable start to Portugal.... 

... then they started SS2  :D

[RallyDriven 138]

Kris Meeke is a lucky, lucky boy. That could easily have been very serious.

https://twitter.com/paddocknews/status/997877106607616001?s=21

Great Rally though, tough conditions. Lots of casualties, with lots of big names getting caught out. Great drive from Neuville and Evans. It’s defin made the championship race more exciting!

[juu1ius 5]

I was on training for Friday and Saturday, w/o any internet connection. Imagine my suprise at lunch that Tänak was out on SS2 and the carnage that fallowed in evening. Super glad for Evans and Sunninen, podium should be real confidence boost.

[tbtstt 295]

RallyDriven said:

Kris Meeke is a lucky, lucky boy. That could easily have been very serious.

https://twitter.com/paddocknews/status/997877106607616001?s=21

Great Rally though, tough conditions. Lots of casualties, with lots of big names getting caught out. Great drive from Neuville and Evans. It’s defin made the championship race more exciting!

I saw the pictures of the wrecked car before I saw the video. I was actually surprised by the video of the crash as, based on the state of the car, I thought it was going to be a much faster crash. 

As you say though, very lucky escape for Meeke. Unlucky weekend for Ogier, I was hoping that Neuville would be able to narrow the point gap down to keep the Championship close, but he has now shot ahead. 

[Dytut 3]

Looking forward to the Ogier fightback for the next two rallies. He does not like being second ;-) And when he really goes full on attack he can be spectacular.

[tbtstt 295]

Dytut said:

Looking forward to the Ogier fightback for the next two rallies. He does not like being second ;-) And when he really goes full on attack he can be spectacular.

I agree with this 110%. They were pretty rare, but those moments when Ogier was with VW and had to fight his way back up the order produced some of the most spectacular clips from those seasons. 

[carpa 70]

tbtstt said:

RallyDriven said:

Kris Meeke is a lucky, lucky boy. That could easily have been very serious.

https://twitter.com/paddocknews/status/997877106607616001?s=21

Great Rally though, tough conditions. Lots of casualties, with lots of big names getting caught out. Great drive from Neuville and Evans. It’s defin made the championship race more exciting!

I saw the pictures of the wrecked car before I saw the video. I was actually surprised by the video of the crash as, based on the state of the car, I thought it was going to be a much faster crash. 

As you say though, very lucky escape for Meeke. Unlucky weekend for Ogier, I was hoping that Neuville would be able to narrow the point gap down to keep the Championship close, but he has now shot ahead. 

That was very serious and, as you said, it wasn't even an off at very high speed. But it still destroyed the front part of the roll cage. The FIA need to look into this because it's a very important weakness, and possibly put stronger tests of the resistance of these parts for 2019, because that looks scary

[Scyy 0]

I'm still expecting number 6 from Ogier this year. He would still be pretty much even in points if he didn't get completely screwed in Sweden with the way they ran the event. I expect he's going to narrow the gap round by round with the way he's been on gravel this year. It's definitely been up another notch compared to last year.

Really glad Evans and Suninen got good results this event. Ever since Finland and Poland last year I've expected Suninen to go places as he's gotten more experience. Hopefully he'll stay on it for the rest of the European gravel events coming up.

[DiRTKiNG808 0]

Rally Portugal was awesome! So hard on the cars and drivers. I am really happy for Fords strong results. 2 cars in the top 3! Well done to Teemu Suninen and Elfyn Evans! Seb Ogier will come back swinging I am sure of that. I like seeing the other Ford drivers pulling their weight and adding to the manufactures fight. Its going to go down to the wire with Ford vs Hyundai. Great season so far.

[Dytut 3]

Nice to see Dani Sordo upping his pace this season, will be a tall order for Paddon to keep his seat for 2019. Don't think Paddon will move to another manufacturer lightly either, he has such strong ties to Hyundai at home. 

[bogani 81]

Dytut said:

Nice to see Dani Sordo upping his pace this season, will be a tall order for Paddon to keep his seat for 2019. Don't think Paddon will move to another manufacturer lightly either, he has such strong ties to Hyundai at home. 

Mikkelsen isn't exactly doing anybody happy at the moment either.

[Dytut 3]

bogani said:

Dytut said:

Nice to see Dani Sordo upping his pace this season, will be a tall order for Paddon to keep his seat for 2019. Don't think Paddon will move to another manufacturer lightly either, he has such strong ties to Hyundai at home. 

Mikkelsen isn't exactly doing anybody happy at the moment either.

True that. I was expecting more from him to be honest. Fine that he might need a few more rallies to get really comfortable in the car, but looking at how Ott performs at Toyota and how Loeb could just jump straight in the fight with the Citroën he really needs to perform better if he really wants to go for that championship.