***The Official Rally Portugal Thread***

[Leithen]

Fingers, legs, toes crossed - it would be great to see....

[Leithen]

WooHoo!!!!!

[Craikeybaby]

That result has made my weekend! 2017 is going to be a great year for WRC!

[giveitfish]

Yesssss!

[chrisgtx]

Well done Chris Meeke and Paul Nagle.

[Allyc85]

Yeeesssss, get in! Great win for Meeke! Was at work, sat on my mower in the pouring rain, cheering as he crossed the finish line! Good job there were no golfers about!

[Allyc85]

WRC Rally Portugal 2016 - @BunningsVideo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ntbNws1n4&in...

WRC Rally Portugal 2016 | Crash & Show | Full HD Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcS-StX3iSY

[Vocal Minority]

At least VW are taking it with good grace.....no wait

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/124449...

Basically
Basically in a nut shell:

Capito told Autosport: "If somebody of the calibre of Kris Meeke or Sebastien Loeb comes for three rallies, it's clear they win and this devalues the whole championship, because the public doesn't know why the guy who leads the championship [Ogier] has no chance to win.

"They think: 'Ah, he's not the real world champion because the other guy wins; this guy who has come three times, he should be the world champion'."

[Leithen]

Vocal Minority said:

At least VW are taking it with good grace.....no wait

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/124449...

Basically
Basically in a nut shell:

Capito told Autosport: "If somebody of the calibre of Kris Meeke or Sebastien Loeb comes for three rallies, it's clear they win and this devalues the whole championship, because the public doesn't know why the guy who leads the championship [Ogier] has no chance to win.

"They think: 'Ah, he's not the real world champion because the other guy wins; this guy who has come three times, he should be the world champion'."

VW have reason to have their noses put out of joint - part timer turns up in last years machinery and makes their wunderkid look average. Tough st.

On the road sweeping issue - why don't they send one of the other classes through first?

[Craikeybaby]

But the same driver/car winning pretty much every rally for the last few year is good for the sport???

[Allyc85]

Very rude and disrespectful from Vw there. Hopefully Kris and Citroen can kick Vws arses full time in 2017!!

[GravelBen]

Leithen said:

On the road sweeping issue - why don't they send one of the other classes through first?

Ogier would still complain that the swept line from a lower class isn't good enough for him.

[Alex Langheck]

The running order issue is not going away – however, there is a time and a place for this discussion.
Denigrating a driver after a well deserved win is crass, insensitive and downright rude. The sooner he leaves for F1/ McLaren the better…….

Wildcard/ local/specialist drivers have always been a part of WRC – they add interest to events; instead of the usual WRC domination. Remember the F2 cars on Tarmac, or Erikkson/ Radstrom in Sweden?