** Official WRC Finland Thread **
Discussion
Lots of action at shakedown!
Neuville off, Breen lost a tyre and crashed heavy, Ogier spun along with Mikkelsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxtE9...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGRxj_ZT4bo&in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu5zH5BhEAY&in...
And some Finnish Yumps
https://youtu.be/2U1cYlwvY-8?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxtE9R...
Ostberg fastest in shakedown
Neuville off, Breen lost a tyre and crashed heavy, Ogier spun along with Mikkelsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxtE9...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGRxj_ZT4bo&in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu5zH5BhEAY&in...
And some Finnish Yumps
https://youtu.be/2U1cYlwvY-8?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxtE9R...
Ostberg fastest in shakedown
Have to say the speeds in the vids online are insane. Its like they've turned it up a notch just for Finland!
Gutted for Meeke. He clearly has the pace to compete with the VW boys. I just don't think the car has it to keep up and so Meeke is giving it more than he should to keep up. thus resulting in his off's.
Paddons roll looked huge and painful. not seen anything besides aftermath pics of Mikkelsen.
Looking at the stage times, the battle between JML & SO stays consistently within a couple of seconds of each other, and the times for anyone behind keeps widening from them both.
VW are running away with it as no other team in the championship are giving 100% to it like they are. Hyundai aren't otherwise the new car would have been ready by now.
Maybe Toyota joining and hopefully giving it 100% would be a challenge to the VW outfit.
I sort of share Slippy's view on the Neuville crash. Could have ended so much worse, I'm not sure we'd have had a Michael Park incident again as the door protection from the cage has changed dramatically since then, there's more bracing and it sits lower in the door opening to be almost level with the co-drivers seat and hips/leg as opposed to being almost mid door positioned as it was in the 307. I always thought the 307 was a bad car and never understood how they could use a convertible design for a racing car!?
Gutted for Meeke. He clearly has the pace to compete with the VW boys. I just don't think the car has it to keep up and so Meeke is giving it more than he should to keep up. thus resulting in his off's.
Paddons roll looked huge and painful. not seen anything besides aftermath pics of Mikkelsen.
Looking at the stage times, the battle between JML & SO stays consistently within a couple of seconds of each other, and the times for anyone behind keeps widening from them both.
VW are running away with it as no other team in the championship are giving 100% to it like they are. Hyundai aren't otherwise the new car would have been ready by now.
Maybe Toyota joining and hopefully giving it 100% would be a challenge to the VW outfit.
I sort of share Slippy's view on the Neuville crash. Could have ended so much worse, I'm not sure we'd have had a Michael Park incident again as the door protection from the cage has changed dramatically since then, there's more bracing and it sits lower in the door opening to be almost level with the co-drivers seat and hips/leg as opposed to being almost mid door positioned as it was in the 307. I always thought the 307 was a bad car and never understood how they could use a convertible design for a racing car!?
I mean 100% as in development, testing and just throwing money at the outfit, like the WRC of old.
Hyundai were suposed to introduce the new gen i20 around about now, but have put that back to introduce it for the start of the 2016 season.
From the Hyundai website in April - https://motorsport.hyundai.com/en/news/view/5748?p...
I know VW made Mikkelsen wait until Portugal for his updates, but if Hyundai were smart about it and realising that Paddon has been out performing the first choice drivers in the old car he should have had the updates already and not be made to wait until Germany to be on level terms with Thierry and Dani.
Some consolation for Kris getting a powerstage point. He could have easily cruised and just got a finish as Matton wants. But I dont think he's got it in him to just cruise and accept it as others are displaying.
Mads Ostberg however is probably lapping up Meekes failures as its taking the attention away from his mediocre season. He doesnt seem to be showing half as much determination, in my eyes, that he did when he was at Ford. But perhaps he's aware that a finish is a finish and looks good for the boss, whereas the likes of Meeke see a win as the best way of pleasing the boss?
Hyundai were suposed to introduce the new gen i20 around about now, but have put that back to introduce it for the start of the 2016 season.
From the Hyundai website in April - https://motorsport.hyundai.com/en/news/view/5748?p...
I know VW made Mikkelsen wait until Portugal for his updates, but if Hyundai were smart about it and realising that Paddon has been out performing the first choice drivers in the old car he should have had the updates already and not be made to wait until Germany to be on level terms with Thierry and Dani.
Some consolation for Kris getting a powerstage point. He could have easily cruised and just got a finish as Matton wants. But I dont think he's got it in him to just cruise and accept it as others are displaying.
Mads Ostberg however is probably lapping up Meekes failures as its taking the attention away from his mediocre season. He doesnt seem to be showing half as much determination, in my eyes, that he did when he was at Ford. But perhaps he's aware that a finish is a finish and looks good for the boss, whereas the likes of Meeke see a win as the best way of pleasing the boss?
I've not seen any of the tv footage from the weekend yet, but this vid shows Meeke's 'off'. (from 1 min on) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnlIedzczwU
I cant really blame Kris for that. You can see he's on the line everyone ahead took over the crest. Just seems his car didnt grip as well as it should have under braking, and he just slid wide. Its not his usual high speed off just a incident that he could have got away with on another corner maybe, had the trees not been there, had it been a ditch maybe he'd have been ok?
Seeing the Polo's first hand through Wales Rally last year it was obvious they were faster through the corners and more controlled. I would have said it was just Ogier's skills making the car look like it was on rails, but all 3 VW's were the same.
Meeke's comments of "if your not in a Polo your not winning" is pretty much spot on.
Every other car seems to be playing catch up and playing for best of the rest status.
Mads Is playing the right game. A finish without the need to rebuild anything is always going to please the boos, a points finish even better. He needs to step it up a gear tho, or he's just going to be repeating Mikko's career of always the bridesmaid. When he was at Ford he showed a lot of potential, obviously as Citroen took him on, but he seems to have settled lately.
I cant really blame Kris for that. You can see he's on the line everyone ahead took over the crest. Just seems his car didnt grip as well as it should have under braking, and he just slid wide. Its not his usual high speed off just a incident that he could have got away with on another corner maybe, had the trees not been there, had it been a ditch maybe he'd have been ok?
Seeing the Polo's first hand through Wales Rally last year it was obvious they were faster through the corners and more controlled. I would have said it was just Ogier's skills making the car look like it was on rails, but all 3 VW's were the same.
Meeke's comments of "if your not in a Polo your not winning" is pretty much spot on.
Every other car seems to be playing catch up and playing for best of the rest status.
Mads Is playing the right game. A finish without the need to rebuild anything is always going to please the boos, a points finish even better. He needs to step it up a gear tho, or he's just going to be repeating Mikko's career of always the bridesmaid. When he was at Ford he showed a lot of potential, obviously as Citroen took him on, but he seems to have settled lately.
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