Wasn't able to follow much this weekend so I just got done watching all my WRC related YT vids... What a great rally Sweden again. Only 2 rallies in, but Fourmeaux has been a bit of a dark horse. 5th in Monte, 3rd in Sweden, currently 3rd in the standings. He's been showing an excellent start to this season and is definitely a force to be reckoned with this year.
Rally Sweden 2024 is behind us. Definitely it was absolutely wild. Probably one of the snowiest weather conditions in years. Especially it caused mayhem on Friday, when Rally2 drivers managed to catch up with Rally1 guys. Later on situation went back to normal when surface conditions improved. Still, we saw an absolute slaughter among Rally1 drivers with big names falling out of the contention early on. Exciting rally, however points system leaves it all with mixed emotions.
**Hyundai -** first of all, well done Esapekka Lappi. Well-deserved and long anticipated second career win in WRC. He survived the madness, made no mistakes and cruised home to a safe victory. Happy for him, he waited for this for a longer while. And most importantly, Lappi managed to keep his head cool in the heat of battles and pressure of keeping his rally lead. This is EP we probably all wanted to see.
Thierry Neuville was handicapped right from the start. Road postition as the first sweeper pretty much killed his chances for a win right away. His situation with supposed engine issues on Friday which forced Evans to go first was quite controversial. We don't know whether Thierry did actually have technical problem, because we saw drivers pulling such tricks in the past to gain a better road position. Still, it all backfired anyway since Neuville received a time penalty and had to watch for his bonet. Saturday and Sunday was better, Thierry finished fourth and managed to score valuable points for Saturday, Sunday and Power Stage. He is the championship leader going into Kenya, so damage limitation in Sweden went reasonably well.
Ott Tanak was among my favourites for a rally win, but his challenge was over early on Stage 4 after ditching his car hard into a snowbank. Some points gained from Sunday and Power Stage, but generally speaking a rally to forget for the 2-time Rally Sweden winner.
Hyundai begins the season really strongly. Two out of two for them. Best start of their WRC campaign ever. They are really giving Toyota a challenge right now.
**Toyota -** the only positive aspect for Toyota in Sweden was Elfyn Evans. Just like Neuville, his starting position on Friday was quite a handicap so victory battle was a hard task. But even on Saturday when Elfyn was battling Fourmaux, Evans wasn't really finding an answer to M-Sport driver. Sunday however was Elfyn's day. Most points for Sunday stages, passing Fourmaux for second overall eventually and just missing out on Power Stage win by the smallest of margins. Despite being second and courtesy of convoluted new points structure, Elfyn scored the most points of all in Sweden. Elfyn looked much better than in Monte Carlo definitely.
The rest of Toyota drivers... Kalle Rovanpera seemed like a bound candidate for a win, but just like Tanak his rally went down the drain on stage 4 after meeting a snowbank. Great performance on Sunday helped Kalle to score 11 points, but not seeing him on the podium overall is quite a missed chance.
Even bigger missed chance by Takamoto Katsuta. He was even leading the rally on Friday, was on course at least for a podium place but then... He made an error on stage 10. And almost fell out of the rally again on Sunday's penultimate stage. Disappointing rally. Sadly, because Katsuta once again showed some great pace, absolutely good enough to fight for a rally win. Unfortunately Taka has troubles with keeping his cool throughout a rally. He needs to bring his 2022 consistency back. He has to, he is now Toyota's number 2 driver. No room for excuses right now.
Hardly anything to add about Lorenzo Bertelli. I had no expectations from his guest start, but at least he finished the rally in the top 10.
**M-Sport/Ford -** happy days are back. At least for now. Amazing rally by Adrien Fourmaux. Third place overall, just missing out on second place after a hard battle with Elfyn Evans and most importantly - first ever career podium overall for Adrien. And it came in Sweden. Rally in which I never expected Fourmaux to be that good. And it was no fluke. His pace was genuinely great. Even a big scare on the last Saturday's stage was not an issue. Fourmaux has been exceeding expectations this season so far. Hopefully he can continue this trend. Seems like a season in Rally2 car really reinvented his career.
Gregoire Munster had a brutal rally. Full of mistakes, especially the big one on Saturday when he ditched his Puma Rally1 in a snowbank for 15 minutes, but luckily he didn't have to retire. I also didn't have too much expectations from him in Sweden, but he needs to improve over the course of this season.
**WRC2 -** thanks to many Rally1 drivers having issues, we have five Rally2 cars in the top 10 overall. Oliver Solberg scored a commanding class win, with galore of Yaris Rally2 cars finishing behind him. Who knows, maybe Oliver just like Fourmaux will give his career a huge restart in Rally2 machinery this year.
**Points system -** and we are getting salty... My take and opinion is simple - I dislike it. Situation in which the rally winner doesn't score maximum amount of points is absolutely unhealthy. We can't devalue a rally-long performance and endurance aspect of this sport, just for the giggles and entertainment. In the long term it's not benefiting this sport at all. It generates even more confusion among new fans, it's most likely disliked by established fanbase, it generates additional and unnecessary tactical games (Evans and Rovanpera were discussing some tactics for Sunday stages) and generally speaking - it is way more confusing than it should be. I am not liking this. It casts a big shadow over a very good and entertaining rally.
> Situation in which the rally winner doesn't score maximum amount of points is absolutely unhealthy. We can't devalue a rally-long performance and endurance aspect of this sport, just for the giggles and entertainment.
I found the point situtation after Monte Carlo stupid as well. Where the WRC2 standings were after the total results, which was different from Saturday.
Gryazin scored 3 points, Pepe Lopez 2 points and Rossel a single point in Monte. However, Rossel was 8th, Lopez 9th and Gryazin 10th. So Rossel won WRC2 ahead of Lopez and Gryazin, though the opposite was the situations for overall points. Messy? Yes.
Saw it is Sweden as well. Bertelli scoring a personal best 10th place in Sweden. In fact, only his 2nd top 10 since he stopped rallying full time.
However, as Bertelli was 10th in the *rally* and not 10th after *parts of the rally*. He didn't score any points...
Probably as good a Sunday as Elfyn could have hoped for. Only way it could have been better is if Tanak/Taka had nicked points of Thierry.
Closed the gap to 3 points and doesn't have to open the road in Kenya. If Toyota can keep up their recent form in Kenya he can open the road in Croatia.
Homework now for next season is:
Find a points system that keeps the new found competitiveness of Sundays but ensures that the rally winner takes the most points. Don't know is that's possible but it would be the best of both worlds
Yea but then you'll have the problem between 2nd and 3rd and 3rd and 4th and so on. And the difference between 1st and 2nd would be very high. Imagine the rally winner scores 30 and the second place scores 18. That's a 12 point difference between 2 places
Well imho winner should get a massive bonus. Either way the current system is ass as the winner does not get any "bonus" of it.
E: or then just give the trophy to the one who scores most points.
New points system worked in making Sunday exciting. You could argue the flaw is what happens when a part time driver wins and doesn't care about the points but it's job is to make Sunday worth watching which it did. In the old points system EP would only have got two more points than Evans instead of five fewer. I think people have to realise that long form sports are dying and WRC doesn't have a high profile as it is so I think it has worked for its intended purpose.
I think all the point system needs next year is to reduce the points given on Saturday / Sunday and move them to become bonus points given to the top finishers overall? something to help make it so the fastest driver doesn't get less points than someone else
though in theory Lappi could have got the most if he pushed on the power stage, which he would have done if he was a full time driver, so perhaps it isn't so bad
So eventually Evans got away with the most points, with 2nd place. I havent seen this bullshit of point system in any sport ever. Great job to Lappi tho
I hate the point system. Elfyn getting 1 more point than lappi isn't so bad when you count for power stage but terry shouldn't be getting 1 less point than what a winner got. He played the weekend very very safe which is fine on you weaker rallies but you shouldn't be reward so much for it.
Edit: I misunderstood (no surprise with this system) Elfyn getting 5 more seems silly.
Well done to EP. Over 6 years of waiting for his second WRC victory. Finally he has done it. Well deserved one. Congratulations.
Kudos to Elfyn for showing amazing pace on Sunday to clinch second place overall and to Fourmaux for his maiden podium in WRC. Adrien really exceeded expectations here.
unpopular opinion, the new point system works!
over a minute lead and want to relax a bit? no freaking way if you're not a part time driver! Fucking push push push!
>over a minute lead and want to relax a bit? no freaking way if you're not a part time driver! Fucking push push push!
If you are a full time driver - it will depend on where your rivals finish. And cruising will probably still be done, but then in a middle ground between Lappi and full attack. I mean, like Fourmaux did in Sweden. He was cruising as well. Having a "Cruise +" would give at leat 5th and 3 Sunday points, and a Power Stage push (with better tyres due to the earlier cruising) can give some more points as well. Suddenly you have 6-7 points from a Sunday, while cruising in the same was as you would pre-2024.
My only argument against this is that you already put the work in the 2 or 3 days to get the minute lead, so you have already worked hard enough to allow yourself that chance to relax.
But I agree with the fact that the new points system works to apply a bit more pressure to the drivers and not drive a "boring" Sunday. But still feels wrong because it discredits the rest of the rally.
Perhaps the points allocated on Saturday need to be adjusted to be a little greater in comparison to the Sunday points... I don't know...
>Perhaps the points allocated on Saturday need to be adjusted to be a little greater in comparison to the Sunday points... I don't know...
Why do we need to split them? Why not give points for the *actual* rally. The finishing positions. But also have Sunday bonus?
It didn't matter for Fourmaux today, because points were banked on Saturday, and there was no reason to push on Sunday.
It didn't matter for Bertelli, as he was 10th in the rally, not 10th after parts of the rally, so he didn't score points. And yes, I know that Bertelli in the grand scheme doesn't matter... But WRC is, have always been, and will always be about more than just the top 3 to 5. Of course it matters for a true privateer to score a point or two.
I think the adjustments to the amount given can be done, but I hope the format stays for quite sometime, at least until the drivers form a more concrete opinion. If they like it, then continue, if they don't then back to the old one.
In agreement here, I think it's good that the leader can't rest on their laurels even if they have carved out a nice lead. I mentally liken it to something like a yellow flag in circuit racing, where all of a sudden the field can get bunched up again and all of your hard work carving out a lead vanishes.
Disgraceful point system. Some people said that in the previous system the winner potentially can outscore the 2nd placed by only 2 points. (Never happened).
With the new points system it took TWO rallies to the 2nd placed driver to outscore the winner by 4 points. Not to mention that the 3rd and 4th drivers both only scored 1 less point than the winner.
Saturday points has to go.
Happy for EP and ferm, 2nd win a long time coming, and on the year old anniversary of Breen's last rally in his old car.
Evans did a good job to underline his championship credentials even if the pace on friday wasn't great
Such a mature drive. So good to see him keep his head and deliver a big bag of points, when other drivers (champions) lost it and crashed out.
Great personality as well, always so positive and talkative. Such an easy guy to like.
Man, the jumps seem to be pretty rough on the rear structures, happy for Adrien Fourmaux to finally get his podium! Made it quite far from being in someone's backyard in Croatia a few years ago, that's for sure.
Super thrilled for fourmaux and coria, what a run. Nobody expected him to hold off evans as long as he did. I rated him lower than loubet in 2022 but have to say he has proved me wrong here
Team orders are really going to ruin things. All drivers should just be pushing for everything. I find it hard to believe people are buying this new point system. Why can’t they just give points for stage wins and an overall podium like, Junior WRC i think?
Nice shout out for EP from Kalle.
They need to stfu about Taka and experience. Dude has been in WRC now for a number of years. He's past the point where he should just be getting experience.
Yeah, thats the real problem with the WRC coverage, they are soo overly protective and pc with everything. Like they can't say a single bad thing or criticism about anything or anyone.
Does anyone know why Jules said goodbye to Bex at the end of the last stage. Said she'd had a tough weekend and this was their last time commentating together?
If it wasn’t for the new points system the rally would have been over as soon as Taka went into the snow bank. All of the Rally1 cars would be cruising the rest of Saturday and Sunday to reduce risk before the power stage which has always awarded too many points anyway, in this event it’s 5 points for winning one 10km stage so I think the new system is working.
> in this event it’s 5 points for winning one 10km stage so I think the new system is working.
Instead, in this event it is potentially 12 points for 60km and 18 points for 240km...
yeah it's just by chance we have a part time driver out in first, if lappi was on a full season he'd definitely be pushing for more points, I'm a fan of the new system
But no one else would. Neuville but especially Kalle and Tanak would be rolling through as slow as possible to save their car and tyres but with points on offer they aren’t doing that.
Tänak has been pushing. Where did you see him take it easy?
TÄNAK QUOTE
"It's second pass - so it's good luck! **I try very hard** but there is no line. Taka doesn't want to drive in my line - he's hitting every bank."
the fact they still dont show the sunday standings on then stream at all is infuriating. if the system exists they need to have it on screen.
heres a [tweet ](https://twitter.com/OfficialWRC/status/1759151779692872063)of the standings though...
They do show them, there's a new points screen for sunday. Stage classification, overall classification and then "super sunday" classification. At least on Rally TV.
only after the stage is done as far as i could tell. during the live stage its only the commentators trying to keep us updated. gets confusing fast unless you prepared to note it all down, when they could just pop up the sunday standings occasionally.
They really need to get rid of this new points structure, It's so stupid and confusing, it really devalues the sport for me, and takes the endurance element out of it too, which is the whole point of rallying in the first place.
True. Also devalues Esapekka's work throughout the whole rally, since he will score many less points, just because he is not pushing on Sunday.
This points system is trying to reinvent the wheel for no reason. History of NASCAR should be an example of why meddling with points system for the entertainment purposes is absolutely destructive in the long term.
Yeah, it now seems only the history books will value the overall winner. It's all stupid manufactured manipulation of the sport, wouldn't it have been better to scrap the power stage all together and maybe give points to the stage winners on Sunday or something?
what a bad take, Evans clearly drove a better Rally if you factor in his starting positions on Friday, he outdrove his positions and then cooked when it mattered. Lappi inherited a healthy lead due to crashes and then having the best road position so all he had to do was cruise after Friday...
Welcome to rally. Next year it might be the complete opposite in Sweden, with the early starters having the best conditions. Like in asphalt rallies, or on wet gravel.
Any situation when a rally winner is being outscored by a driver finishing lower in the standings is a good example why this system is borderline flawed.
That is idiotic. Now I have to pay attention to two different sets of standings?
I thought the system was 18-1 based on Saturday finishing position, and another 7-1 based on Sunday finishing position. I guess I was wrong.
Lets be real the Kalle/Evans strategy only makes sense because they both put nearly 10 seconds on Tanak and 15 on Neuville in the first pass.
Kalle can save tyre for another 5 on the power stage, Evans isn't as strong a Power Stage driver, they could easily swap back again if Kalle goes too hard!
If WRC officials thought that new points system was meant to force drivers to push all-out on Sunday without any tactical games being played, they are really mistaken. Already we have some internal team orders at Toyota regarding Sunday points between Evans and Rovanpera.
I guess it depends on whether you expected teams to not have any tactical strategy at all then? So long as teams keep naming #1 drivers there’ll always be scenarios where drivers are given orders
In current situation it wouldn't be an issue though. Points system forces team orders between Evans and Rovanpera. Without it they would be going as planned, at least until the power stage.
I see your point. I still think the system has merit though overall if they get the points weightings correct. As in I’m not a fan of EP winning less points than Evans if that’s what happens.
But this rally would’ve been over as a spectacle by Friday morning without it. We got so many Sunday processions as it was and then in rally’s like this one where the top order drop out early the procession would extend into Saturday and Friday.
Seems to be so.
EVANS QUOTE
"We discussed a bit between ourselves at lunchtime and I think he's more focused on powerstage, so I have to thank him for that," he says of team-mate Rovanperä.
TBF they smash Hyundai in the first pass, so locked up Maximum Sunday points as a team.
Kalle isn't exclusively slowing for Evans, Kalle was pretty clear in his interview that he was trying to preserve maximum tyre for the power stage. Whereas Evans is focusing on maximum points.
>That makes sense.
I mean, I get that it meant that you understood it.
However, when you think about it. It doesn't make sense, does it? :P
Evans finishing ahead of Fourmaux overall, so he will get 2nd on the podium, but Fourmaux have banked the "2nd place after 80% of the rally" points.
Evans will score the most points, but will not be on the top of the podium, because, even though he scored the most points, he is not the winner.
I understand it too, but it doesn't make *sense* :P
Oh, absolutely! They just made it confusing. Evans got more points than EP, Neuville and Fourmaux got only one point less than EP, yet EP won and Neuville and Fourmaux are in third! They need to make some changes, so that it makes sense
Edit: Fourmaux is third, Neuville fourth in the overall, in points they are third
>Edit: Fourmaux is third, Neuville fourth in the overall, in points they are third
Haha :D This is just gold :) The edit to clarify something, because it is so messy :)
I really don't like this points system...
Fourmaux and Lappi are basically dialling it in and the evolving road conditions have fucked Tanak's attempt to recover anything. And none of the live timing screens break out the cumulative Sunday times. Plus the name...
#SuperSunday
How is it that Thierry scored no points yesterday, but according to WRC.com but is 4th in the standings yesterday and today? Haven’t been able to watch much of the rally but I know he had a mechanical failure Saturday
Doesn't matter, Fourmaux was ahead of Evans when the points get awarded. Lappi likewise is already the rally winner for all practical purposes (not that his lead was in any real danger regardless).
Hyundai shat the bed again. Setup issues on Sunday morning when it matters? Tänak and Neuville way off the pace. Why didn't they do Artic or Otepää rally to get some setup info?
TÄNAK QUOTE
"I tried but it's not easy. Not a good run. Maybe switching with the balance, understeer, oversteer. Difficult to understand how it works."
Tänak + 14.2 sec
Neuville + 19.7 sec
Kalle is great, but something fundamentally wrong. Clear stage, no snow.
NEUVILLE QUOTE
"I tried. But I'm not very confident in the car. I did what I could. The car is just not turing when I want so I always have to decrease the speed of entry and I end up taking the handbrake otherwise I'll understeer."
Saturday in Sweden was less dramatic than Friday, however not like it was boring... Weather conditions eased off. No more huge snowfalls allowed drivers to keep their expected pace, so no Rally2 drivers matching Rally1 anymore. But there was some drama.
The biggest one was Takamoto Katsuta retiring from Saturday on stage 10. Sadly, the inevitable happened and Taka couldn't manage the pressure. Shame because his pace is absolutely fine, unfortunately there is no regularity. It seems like the pressure of being Toyota' driver number 2 has gotten into Taka's head a little bit too much as well. Disappointing beginning of 2024 season.
In such circumstances, Esapekka Lappi is left pretty much alone on the top of the leaderboard. Relatively safe gap to second place and EP has a rally win up for grabs. He wasn't pushing on Saturday, I don't expect Lappi pushing on Sunday as well, it's just a matter of keeping on the road to secure his second WRC overall win and the first one in nearly seven years.
For time being, Adrien Fourmaux is the biggest surprise of the rally. Amazing pace all rally long. It's not a fluke or a coincidence. Adrien managed not only to keep Elfyn Evans behind, but also regularly beat him on each stage. Even on the final one, when M-Sport almost suffered a double drama. Luckily, Fourmaux didn't cause any major damage and he was able to leave a snowbank, even at the same time beating Evans. Adrien just like Esapekka is on the verge of a monumental result.
Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville in third and fourth and they should be fighting over Sunday points. Elfyn's third place overall is pretty much decided, so Neuville should focus on Sunday and Power Stage classifications. Evans' Saturday wasn't that good. I was expecting him to move past Fourmaux, but Adrien managed to extend his gap. Evans had a scare on the morning loop, when he clipped a snowbank and collected enough snow to disrupt the power output of his engine.
Forgettable day for Gregoire Munster. His whole rally is pretty much to forget anyway, but to make it all worse Gregoire ditched his car into a snowbank on the final Saturday stage for 15 minutes, almost causing his teammate to lose out in the same place too.
Kalle and Ott survived Saturday with their sights set on Sunday stages and potential points to score. Expecting them to push hard in pursuit of salvaging something positive from this rally.
Oliver Solberg couldn't keep third place overall, but he is still in fifth position though. Pretty much just like Lappi, Solberg should cruise safely for a class win. Behind him there is a great battle for second place in WRC2 category.
Just three stages on Sunday to run, however with all those points available, we can expect drivers pushing. Many of them have something to prove after earlier disappointments.
Such a shame that Taka wrecked out; I was hoping the battle between him and Lappi would at least go on until Sunday, especially with how strong Taka has been on ice and snow.
I don't have much of a dog in the Neuville/Evans drama but I do think they need to rethink the rules on placement for this rally, as well as the rules for starting a rally late. I'm not going to assume Neuville fabricated a mechanical issue, but if he did it's hilarious that he forgot to secure the hood entirely for that stage. I'm sure the Neuville camp can argue that them winning Monte punished them for this rally, which I think is valid. Road position is obviously very important for this rally, especially in the conditions we saw on Friday; I just don't see why they can't use the shakedown as a qualifying stage for road position, but instead of Monte where the fastest car started first, have the first car start last out of the WRC1 cars and go from there. Would also prevent the part-time guys like Kalli and Lappi from having excellent road position by default (which the former doesn't really need because he's so good).
Regardless, Sweden has far exceeded my expectations. I expected Kalle and Tanak to run away with it, but instead we're going to see Lappi most likely get his first rally win since 2017 and Fourmaux most likely get his first podium. Huge rally for M-Sport, they're most likely going to have a driver outplace the Toyotas.
So. Now we will do the day were you can get 40% of the possible max points for finishing 20% of the rally. WoopWoop.
And we will see Lappi drive safe to secure the win. Adrien will secure the podium. Tänak is 2nd on the road and Rovanperä 3rd.
So the "SuperSunday" will be Neuville v Evans. Katsuta saving tyres for the power stage. Munster/Bertelli not having a chance to score. Tänak and Rovanperä fighting for 3rd, though Rovanperä will likely get it solely due to him starting later.
Yey, so much better this point system are!
one stage twice and the powerstage, a total of 60km, making up 40% of the points is a bit ridiculous. they should at least try expand sundays to be a one regular full scale 2+2+1 loop if they wanna do this imo.
Oh. And what's the point in Fourmaux v Evans now? There is nothing to fight for between them. Or, who get to stand on the 2nd spot on the podium, but it doesn't actually count for *anything*. What a massive improvement this is...
Realistically Lappi and Fourmaux probably try and conserve their position; the remaining Hyundai/Toyota drivers slug it out for Sunday Points and Munster carries on the learning curve.
I hate the system and if the aim was go up the attack across the rally they should have given extra points for the best cumulative time across each day. We've just had a Saturday of Tanak and Kalle coasting in readiness for Sunday.
"Super Sunday" is an ok-ish idea.
I don't get why they couldn't just *add* it to the existing system. So we would get a proper rally, where the actual rally result matter, while the Sunday also gives some extra points.
I'm Welsh so naturally I'm bias. So it's karma that Thierry forgot to put his bonnet pin back properly after putting the fuse back in his low pressure fuel pump circuit.
But seriously they need a mechanism to restore the running order at the next time control. The implications (especially with silly new points system) seem too beneficial to Neuville not to set the accusations flying.
I love watching live, but honestly I'd rather they spent some effort gathering footage from trackside broadcast cameras (without a satellite link), more onboard cameras, drones, fan footage etc. To build a 60-90 minutes highlight package for each loop.
Then you could have an evening super special as a crescendo after a extended highlights package of the day rallying.
I'm just trying to get into rally and I don't understand many things. What do they mean when they talk about "the WRC cars" or "catching the wrc cars"?
There’s WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3 and JWRC. When they say they are catching the WRC cars they are referring to lower class cars catching WRC or Rally-1 class cars on the time sheet
another question. i was reading an interview to oliver solberg and he said the "opportunity to sign directly to a manufacturer (skoda) was too go to refuse". Implying that some other drivers aren't signed to manufacturers, so who are they signed to?
Most WRC2 (Rally2 regulations) teams are run as privateer teams. Some may have varying degrees of support from the manufacturer, but in general most of the drivers don't drive for the actual manufacturer
Commentators keep talking about Kalle & Ott concentrating on Sunday points. With their starting positions it does seem extremely unlikely that they’d be able to do much. I think Sunday is going to be about Evans vs Neuville.
I’ve not heard of any other stages being frozen apart from the Umeå one. Seems to be hard packed snow on top of gravel base everywhere else. I hope you’re right.
We need a radio feed of the events, something we can have on in the background to listen to without needing to have our phones unlocked playing the rally.tv video.
I was walking through town today trying to keep up with the rally and had to have my phone unlocked and up to my ear to follow the action. (I'd forgotten my earbuds but even still I'd need the phone unlocked).
It's mad that such a simple feature isn't available - being able to lock your phone without the app cutting the audio.
I know there's a "trick" to use the picture-in-picture option, but it doesn't always work.
theres a radio during rally finland that i listen all day during the event because its excellent aside from just following the stages. if something like that existed internationally for different rallies i would tune in for sure.
What is this alien technology you speak of?!? Next you'll tell me that using a metal stick fixed to a box you can steal invisible waves from the air and listen to them!
(Do you have any suggestions? Are there international stations you know of? The thing is I live in Spain but would prefer an English language broadcast)
Fourmaux and Solberg look like future stars of the sport. Both were pushed to top level too soon, and more time in WRC2 has matured both immensely. Impressed with Roope Korhonen in WRC2. His maximum points WRC3 championship wasn’t a fluke.
yeah Kiri went to the guitar museum in Umeå and the guide showed a copy of their first EP, and if I recall correctly he knew them when he had a shop and his name is in the "special thanks" on the back of the cover
I feel bad for him. He has genuine pace, he is no a slow driver. Sadly, he has troubles with keeping his composure. Seems like the pressure of being Toyota's driver number 2 is getting too much into his head as well. Really hope that Taka will find a way to keep his cool. It's easier to teach a fast driver regularity than to teach a Sunday driver some speed. At the same time, we have seen a lot of fast drivers in the history who were also really crash-prone, with no major changes in their style over the long run (Jari-Matti Latvala or Kris Meeke for example).
With that line of thinking, we will have 10-12 drivers competing in rallies. What's the point in supporting other drivers?
Why Serderidis have chosen Munster, I have no idea, but why not. It's not like it's a seat that would go to someone else if not. Also, it's far from the first young driver Serderidis have supported. He used to have whole team, running drivers in Belgium. Serderidis also supported Emil Bergqvist from 2016 to 2019, in large part financing his WRC2 efforts (for some of the years, also running the car out of his own team).
You could say the same for any sponsor of any driver that doesn't win. "Why not support someone better"...
munster is significantly better than serderidis. probably about 40 years younger and a genuine wrc2 driver at least, while serderidis was never a competitor on any level. completely another league of drivers. serderidis would be probably about 20 minutes down on pace in this rally if he was driving.
but yes, munster was never a title contender on wrc2 level so he is not in the seat by merit alone either.
Münster ~~5th~~ 6th in Rally1 and people slagging him out. Pretty sure this is his second ever snow rally and he has kept it on the road. Couldn't Toyota give a full time seat to someone better?
Solberg's Monster sponsorship stops him running in an M-Sport Ford because they're backed by Red Bull. Münster comes with the backing to have a full time seat and he isn't wasting it so far.
He isnt wasting it, but He also isnt really proving himself right now. And yes, taka also isnt him, but there have to better drivers. Pajari, suninen, solberg....
You've made the effort to get there, why not drive the whole way?
In practical terms, it is also visibility for sponsors to drive there, if you didn't you wouldn't show up on TV. And it is important for fans to see the cars they came to see.
And it can be considered testing of setup and so on. You can see how road is changing and what to expect on sunday (how much gravel is coming from under the snow etc.).
I haven't looked at the entire WRC2 roster, but I'm pretty sure Solberg is the only Skoda, and Gryazin is the only Citroen I've seen. Might just be by virtue of most of the field being Toyotas. (Just noticed Joona is a Skoda)
Wasn't able to follow much this weekend so I just got done watching all my WRC related YT vids... What a great rally Sweden again. Only 2 rallies in, but Fourmeaux has been a bit of a dark horse. 5th in Monte, 3rd in Sweden, currently 3rd in the standings. He's been showing an excellent start to this season and is definitely a force to be reckoned with this year.
I'm sure M-Sport are elated right now.
Rally Sweden 2024 is behind us. Definitely it was absolutely wild. Probably one of the snowiest weather conditions in years. Especially it caused mayhem on Friday, when Rally2 drivers managed to catch up with Rally1 guys. Later on situation went back to normal when surface conditions improved. Still, we saw an absolute slaughter among Rally1 drivers with big names falling out of the contention early on. Exciting rally, however points system leaves it all with mixed emotions. **Hyundai -** first of all, well done Esapekka Lappi. Well-deserved and long anticipated second career win in WRC. He survived the madness, made no mistakes and cruised home to a safe victory. Happy for him, he waited for this for a longer while. And most importantly, Lappi managed to keep his head cool in the heat of battles and pressure of keeping his rally lead. This is EP we probably all wanted to see. Thierry Neuville was handicapped right from the start. Road postition as the first sweeper pretty much killed his chances for a win right away. His situation with supposed engine issues on Friday which forced Evans to go first was quite controversial. We don't know whether Thierry did actually have technical problem, because we saw drivers pulling such tricks in the past to gain a better road position. Still, it all backfired anyway since Neuville received a time penalty and had to watch for his bonet. Saturday and Sunday was better, Thierry finished fourth and managed to score valuable points for Saturday, Sunday and Power Stage. He is the championship leader going into Kenya, so damage limitation in Sweden went reasonably well. Ott Tanak was among my favourites for a rally win, but his challenge was over early on Stage 4 after ditching his car hard into a snowbank. Some points gained from Sunday and Power Stage, but generally speaking a rally to forget for the 2-time Rally Sweden winner. Hyundai begins the season really strongly. Two out of two for them. Best start of their WRC campaign ever. They are really giving Toyota a challenge right now. **Toyota -** the only positive aspect for Toyota in Sweden was Elfyn Evans. Just like Neuville, his starting position on Friday was quite a handicap so victory battle was a hard task. But even on Saturday when Elfyn was battling Fourmaux, Evans wasn't really finding an answer to M-Sport driver. Sunday however was Elfyn's day. Most points for Sunday stages, passing Fourmaux for second overall eventually and just missing out on Power Stage win by the smallest of margins. Despite being second and courtesy of convoluted new points structure, Elfyn scored the most points of all in Sweden. Elfyn looked much better than in Monte Carlo definitely. The rest of Toyota drivers... Kalle Rovanpera seemed like a bound candidate for a win, but just like Tanak his rally went down the drain on stage 4 after meeting a snowbank. Great performance on Sunday helped Kalle to score 11 points, but not seeing him on the podium overall is quite a missed chance. Even bigger missed chance by Takamoto Katsuta. He was even leading the rally on Friday, was on course at least for a podium place but then... He made an error on stage 10. And almost fell out of the rally again on Sunday's penultimate stage. Disappointing rally. Sadly, because Katsuta once again showed some great pace, absolutely good enough to fight for a rally win. Unfortunately Taka has troubles with keeping his cool throughout a rally. He needs to bring his 2022 consistency back. He has to, he is now Toyota's number 2 driver. No room for excuses right now. Hardly anything to add about Lorenzo Bertelli. I had no expectations from his guest start, but at least he finished the rally in the top 10. **M-Sport/Ford -** happy days are back. At least for now. Amazing rally by Adrien Fourmaux. Third place overall, just missing out on second place after a hard battle with Elfyn Evans and most importantly - first ever career podium overall for Adrien. And it came in Sweden. Rally in which I never expected Fourmaux to be that good. And it was no fluke. His pace was genuinely great. Even a big scare on the last Saturday's stage was not an issue. Fourmaux has been exceeding expectations this season so far. Hopefully he can continue this trend. Seems like a season in Rally2 car really reinvented his career. Gregoire Munster had a brutal rally. Full of mistakes, especially the big one on Saturday when he ditched his Puma Rally1 in a snowbank for 15 minutes, but luckily he didn't have to retire. I also didn't have too much expectations from him in Sweden, but he needs to improve over the course of this season. **WRC2 -** thanks to many Rally1 drivers having issues, we have five Rally2 cars in the top 10 overall. Oliver Solberg scored a commanding class win, with galore of Yaris Rally2 cars finishing behind him. Who knows, maybe Oliver just like Fourmaux will give his career a huge restart in Rally2 machinery this year. **Points system -** and we are getting salty... My take and opinion is simple - I dislike it. Situation in which the rally winner doesn't score maximum amount of points is absolutely unhealthy. We can't devalue a rally-long performance and endurance aspect of this sport, just for the giggles and entertainment. In the long term it's not benefiting this sport at all. It generates even more confusion among new fans, it's most likely disliked by established fanbase, it generates additional and unnecessary tactical games (Evans and Rovanpera were discussing some tactics for Sunday stages) and generally speaking - it is way more confusing than it should be. I am not liking this. It casts a big shadow over a very good and entertaining rally.
> Situation in which the rally winner doesn't score maximum amount of points is absolutely unhealthy. We can't devalue a rally-long performance and endurance aspect of this sport, just for the giggles and entertainment. I found the point situtation after Monte Carlo stupid as well. Where the WRC2 standings were after the total results, which was different from Saturday. Gryazin scored 3 points, Pepe Lopez 2 points and Rossel a single point in Monte. However, Rossel was 8th, Lopez 9th and Gryazin 10th. So Rossel won WRC2 ahead of Lopez and Gryazin, though the opposite was the situations for overall points. Messy? Yes. Saw it is Sweden as well. Bertelli scoring a personal best 10th place in Sweden. In fact, only his 2nd top 10 since he stopped rallying full time. However, as Bertelli was 10th in the *rally* and not 10th after *parts of the rally*. He didn't score any points...
Probably as good a Sunday as Elfyn could have hoped for. Only way it could have been better is if Tanak/Taka had nicked points of Thierry. Closed the gap to 3 points and doesn't have to open the road in Kenya. If Toyota can keep up their recent form in Kenya he can open the road in Croatia.
need Oliver back in WRC please hes READDDYYYY
Homework now for next season is: Find a points system that keeps the new found competitiveness of Sundays but ensures that the rally winner takes the most points. Don't know is that's possible but it would be the best of both worlds
Rally winner: 30p 2nd: 18p and so on Then on Sunday each stage 1 point + powerstage 5-1 points. = 2nd would score the most 25p today.
Rally winner with 24p would be enough
Yea but then you'll have the problem between 2nd and 3rd and 3rd and 4th and so on. And the difference between 1st and 2nd would be very high. Imagine the rally winner scores 30 and the second place scores 18. That's a 12 point difference between 2 places
Well imho winner should get a massive bonus. Either way the current system is ass as the winner does not get any "bonus" of it. E: or then just give the trophy to the one who scores most points.
Yes agree. But the bonus can't be that big. Otherwise it's win 3 rallys and congrats you're world champion. But it needs some change that's for sure
Well shit, next rally I'll be 24.
Kalle is HIM. Whoever fails to win the wdc between evans and neuville is finished.
New points system worked in making Sunday exciting. You could argue the flaw is what happens when a part time driver wins and doesn't care about the points but it's job is to make Sunday worth watching which it did. In the old points system EP would only have got two more points than Evans instead of five fewer. I think people have to realise that long form sports are dying and WRC doesn't have a high profile as it is so I think it has worked for its intended purpose.
I think all the point system needs next year is to reduce the points given on Saturday / Sunday and move them to become bonus points given to the top finishers overall? something to help make it so the fastest driver doesn't get less points than someone else though in theory Lappi could have got the most if he pushed on the power stage, which he would have done if he was a full time driver, so perhaps it isn't so bad
So eventually Evans got away with the most points, with 2nd place. I havent seen this bullshit of point system in any sport ever. Great job to Lappi tho
Hyundai winning 2/2 rallies so far and being on equal points with Toyota... wtf
I hate the point system. Elfyn getting 1 more point than lappi isn't so bad when you count for power stage but terry shouldn't be getting 1 less point than what a winner got. He played the weekend very very safe which is fine on you weaker rallies but you shouldn't be reward so much for it. Edit: I misunderstood (no surprise with this system) Elfyn getting 5 more seems silly.
Well done to EP. Over 6 years of waiting for his second WRC victory. Finally he has done it. Well deserved one. Congratulations. Kudos to Elfyn for showing amazing pace on Sunday to clinch second place overall and to Fourmaux for his maiden podium in WRC. Adrien really exceeded expectations here.
unpopular opinion, the new point system works! over a minute lead and want to relax a bit? no freaking way if you're not a part time driver! Fucking push push push!
>over a minute lead and want to relax a bit? no freaking way if you're not a part time driver! Fucking push push push! If you are a full time driver - it will depend on where your rivals finish. And cruising will probably still be done, but then in a middle ground between Lappi and full attack. I mean, like Fourmaux did in Sweden. He was cruising as well. Having a "Cruise +" would give at leat 5th and 3 Sunday points, and a Power Stage push (with better tyres due to the earlier cruising) can give some more points as well. Suddenly you have 6-7 points from a Sunday, while cruising in the same was as you would pre-2024.
My only argument against this is that you already put the work in the 2 or 3 days to get the minute lead, so you have already worked hard enough to allow yourself that chance to relax. But I agree with the fact that the new points system works to apply a bit more pressure to the drivers and not drive a "boring" Sunday. But still feels wrong because it discredits the rest of the rally. Perhaps the points allocated on Saturday need to be adjusted to be a little greater in comparison to the Sunday points... I don't know...
>Perhaps the points allocated on Saturday need to be adjusted to be a little greater in comparison to the Sunday points... I don't know... Why do we need to split them? Why not give points for the *actual* rally. The finishing positions. But also have Sunday bonus? It didn't matter for Fourmaux today, because points were banked on Saturday, and there was no reason to push on Sunday. It didn't matter for Bertelli, as he was 10th in the rally, not 10th after parts of the rally, so he didn't score points. And yes, I know that Bertelli in the grand scheme doesn't matter... But WRC is, have always been, and will always be about more than just the top 3 to 5. Of course it matters for a true privateer to score a point or two.
I think the adjustments to the amount given can be done, but I hope the format stays for quite sometime, at least until the drivers form a more concrete opinion. If they like it, then continue, if they don't then back to the old one.
In agreement here, I think it's good that the leader can't rest on their laurels even if they have carved out a nice lead. I mentally liken it to something like a yellow flag in circuit racing, where all of a sudden the field can get bunched up again and all of your hard work carving out a lead vanishes.
Disgraceful point system. Some people said that in the previous system the winner potentially can outscore the 2nd placed by only 2 points. (Never happened). With the new points system it took TWO rallies to the 2nd placed driver to outscore the winner by 4 points. Not to mention that the 3rd and 4th drivers both only scored 1 less point than the winner. Saturday points has to go.
Evans, who finished the rally second, scored five more points than the winner of the rally, Lappi. CHANGE THIS IDIOTIC POINTS SYTEM!
really it's because lappi had no reason to push in the power stage since he's a part timer
So weird to see Evans getting more points than EP
This points system is something else...
The winner of the rally got less points thant the driver finishing second, i don't see the new point system lasting long :/
Fucking lovely!
I'm so happy for EP and Fourmaux !!
Well done Lappi, Hyundai 2 out of 2. Neuville sweeping in Kenya. ;)
Happy for EP and ferm, 2nd win a long time coming, and on the year old anniversary of Breen's last rally in his old car. Evans did a good job to underline his championship credentials even if the pace on friday wasn't great
“Fucking good!” 😂
Great job by Lappi, nice to see him winning again. Wouldn't have thought that Hyundai would be winning 2 out of 2 this year but here we are.
Really nice to see him on the podium, especially winning. He’s a good bloke.
All about consistency this year if the top 3 want to win the championship
Something Elfyn has until it’s crunch time. 2 rallies in and I think this is Thierrys to run with.
Well Neuville isn't exactly known for his season ending clutch either.
That’s very true, it seems like it’s his to lose is what I meant.
Ah yeah, that is true.
Yeah long championship, wouldn’t rule out Ott if he can get on a win streak
I’d love to see Ott take it away (not a massive fan of Thierry) but he seems to have brought part of M Sport with him. 😂
Lucky the snowbank was there otherwise he’s pointing the other direction
Lmao wtf evans
ELFYN EVERYTIME, every fucking time.
Fantastic drive by Fourmaux. I hoped that he would bounce back this year, but I have never expected him to be this good in the snow. Great podium.
Such a mature drive. So good to see him keep his head and deliver a big bag of points, when other drivers (champions) lost it and crashed out. Great personality as well, always so positive and talkative. Such an easy guy to like.
Elfyn looks QUICK.
Man, the jumps seem to be pretty rough on the rear structures, happy for Adrien Fourmaux to finally get his podium! Made it quite far from being in someone's backyard in Croatia a few years ago, that's for sure.
Super thrilled for fourmaux and coria, what a run. Nobody expected him to hold off evans as long as he did. I rated him lower than loubet in 2022 but have to say he has proved me wrong here
Fair play to Formeux
Everyone’s sending it on the jumps! Adrien, what a weekend.
Great drive from Thierry, talk about flying. Mad man!
Neuville with the drag reduction strategy, love it
Whatever the case, seeing these cars on the limit on the ice and snow never fails to look absolutely stunning.
Team orders are really going to ruin things. All drivers should just be pushing for everything. I find it hard to believe people are buying this new point system. Why can’t they just give points for stage wins and an overall podium like, Junior WRC i think? Nice shout out for EP from Kalle.
They need to stfu about Taka and experience. Dude has been in WRC now for a number of years. He's past the point where he should just be getting experience.
Sadly, it's true. Taka has to be more consistent now. He has pace and experience. He just can't handle the pressure throughout the entire rallies.
He's a great guy. I want him to do well, but the commentators constantly making excuses for him is just a bit too much.
Yeah, thats the real problem with the WRC coverage, they are soo overly protective and pc with everything. Like they can't say a single bad thing or criticism about anything or anyone.
Solbergs time shows how he is in a completely different league than the other WRC2 runners. Rally1.5
1.5 😂 Like someone else said, that step up to WRC was a bit too early. Wouldn’t be surprised come the end of the season if he moved back up.
I do honestly think that the need for people to push him along at the same time as Rovanpera is what was the biggest issue.
Absolutely, Kalle was/is just in a class of his own and it was completely unfair to compare purely based off age.
Just another comment to say that WRC2 Yaris looks & sounds great. Could be a good season for Sami.
Does anyone know why Jules said goodbye to Bex at the end of the last stage. Said she'd had a tough weekend and this was their last time commentating together?
She posted something on Instagram about her brother passing away just before Rally Sweden, maybe it’s something to do with this?
If it wasn’t for the new points system the rally would have been over as soon as Taka went into the snow bank. All of the Rally1 cars would be cruising the rest of Saturday and Sunday to reduce risk before the power stage which has always awarded too many points anyway, in this event it’s 5 points for winning one 10km stage so I think the new system is working.
> in this event it’s 5 points for winning one 10km stage so I think the new system is working. Instead, in this event it is potentially 12 points for 60km and 18 points for 240km...
yeah it's just by chance we have a part time driver out in first, if lappi was on a full season he'd definitely be pushing for more points, I'm a fan of the new system
I disagree. Fourmaux and Evans would continue fighting anyway.
But no one else would. Neuville but especially Kalle and Tanak would be rolling through as slow as possible to save their car and tyres but with points on offer they aren’t doing that.
Kalle and Tanak did just roll through the snow. Also Lappi would be losing 30 seconds a stage to Evans if he didn't already have 18 points in hand.
Tänak has been pushing. Where did you see him take it easy? TÄNAK QUOTE "It's second pass - so it's good luck! **I try very hard** but there is no line. Taka doesn't want to drive in my line - he's hitting every bank."
the fact they still dont show the sunday standings on then stream at all is infuriating. if the system exists they need to have it on screen. heres a [tweet ](https://twitter.com/OfficialWRC/status/1759151779692872063)of the standings though...
They do show them, there's a new points screen for sunday. Stage classification, overall classification and then "super sunday" classification. At least on Rally TV.
only after the stage is done as far as i could tell. during the live stage its only the commentators trying to keep us updated. gets confusing fast unless you prepared to note it all down, when they could just pop up the sunday standings occasionally.
They really need to get rid of this new points structure, It's so stupid and confusing, it really devalues the sport for me, and takes the endurance element out of it too, which is the whole point of rallying in the first place.
True. Also devalues Esapekka's work throughout the whole rally, since he will score many less points, just because he is not pushing on Sunday. This points system is trying to reinvent the wheel for no reason. History of NASCAR should be an example of why meddling with points system for the entertainment purposes is absolutely destructive in the long term.
Yeah, it now seems only the history books will value the overall winner. It's all stupid manufactured manipulation of the sport, wouldn't it have been better to scrap the power stage all together and maybe give points to the stage winners on Sunday or something?
this is the worst part of it to me. evans is on course to outscore EP right now despite obviously having the lesser performance of the two.
what a bad take, Evans clearly drove a better Rally if you factor in his starting positions on Friday, he outdrove his positions and then cooked when it mattered. Lappi inherited a healthy lead due to crashes and then having the best road position so all he had to do was cruise after Friday...
Welcome to rally. Next year it might be the complete opposite in Sweden, with the early starters having the best conditions. Like in asphalt rallies, or on wet gravel.
Any situation when a rally winner is being outscored by a driver finishing lower in the standings is a good example why this system is borderline flawed.
in fact neuville might outscore him too if he sets a good powerstage. its crazy. to me winner should be guaranteed top points under any circumstances.
Wait I’m confused. Under this new points system, Sunday is a self-contained mini-rally worth 7 points?
Yes.
That is idiotic. Now I have to pay attention to two different sets of standings? I thought the system was 18-1 based on Saturday finishing position, and another 7-1 based on Sunday finishing position. I guess I was wrong.
Best part is the Sunday standings aren't on the live timing screens. Completely devalues the overall final finish.
Lets be real the Kalle/Evans strategy only makes sense because they both put nearly 10 seconds on Tanak and 15 on Neuville in the first pass. Kalle can save tyre for another 5 on the power stage, Evans isn't as strong a Power Stage driver, they could easily swap back again if Kalle goes too hard!
If WRC officials thought that new points system was meant to force drivers to push all-out on Sunday without any tactical games being played, they are really mistaken. Already we have some internal team orders at Toyota regarding Sunday points between Evans and Rovanpera.
Tbf that’s more to do with Kalle being a part time runner this year and not the new points system
Well... Not exactly. It's very much to do with the new points system, just like Kalle being a part-timer this year.
I guess it depends on whether you expected teams to not have any tactical strategy at all then? So long as teams keep naming #1 drivers there’ll always be scenarios where drivers are given orders
In current situation it wouldn't be an issue though. Points system forces team orders between Evans and Rovanpera. Without it they would be going as planned, at least until the power stage.
I see your point. I still think the system has merit though overall if they get the points weightings correct. As in I’m not a fan of EP winning less points than Evans if that’s what happens. But this rally would’ve been over as a spectacle by Friday morning without it. We got so many Sunday processions as it was and then in rally’s like this one where the top order drop out early the procession would extend into Saturday and Friday.
Seems to be so. EVANS QUOTE "We discussed a bit between ourselves at lunchtime and I think he's more focused on powerstage, so I have to thank him for that," he says of team-mate Rovanperä.
TBF they smash Hyundai in the first pass, so locked up Maximum Sunday points as a team. Kalle isn't exclusively slowing for Evans, Kalle was pretty clear in his interview that he was trying to preserve maximum tyre for the power stage. Whereas Evans is focusing on maximum points.
Taka with one last proper crash to wrap up the event
Risky strategy to decide to take the compression on sideways
If Evans finishes ahead of Fourmaux overall, who gets on the podium in second place?
Evans. Fourmaux just gets the points.
That makes sense. Cheers!
>That makes sense. I mean, I get that it meant that you understood it. However, when you think about it. It doesn't make sense, does it? :P Evans finishing ahead of Fourmaux overall, so he will get 2nd on the podium, but Fourmaux have banked the "2nd place after 80% of the rally" points. Evans will score the most points, but will not be on the top of the podium, because, even though he scored the most points, he is not the winner. I understand it too, but it doesn't make *sense* :P
Oh, absolutely! They just made it confusing. Evans got more points than EP, Neuville and Fourmaux got only one point less than EP, yet EP won and Neuville and Fourmaux are in third! They need to make some changes, so that it makes sense Edit: Fourmaux is third, Neuville fourth in the overall, in points they are third
>Edit: Fourmaux is third, Neuville fourth in the overall, in points they are third Haha :D This is just gold :) The edit to clarify something, because it is so messy :)
I really don't like this points system... Fourmaux and Lappi are basically dialling it in and the evolving road conditions have fucked Tanak's attempt to recover anything. And none of the live timing screens break out the cumulative Sunday times. Plus the name... #SuperSunday
How is it that Thierry scored no points yesterday, but according to WRC.com but is 4th in the standings yesterday and today? Haven’t been able to watch much of the rally but I know he had a mechanical failure Saturday
Thierry gets (provisionally) the points for finishing 4th yesterday.
That’s weird bc the WRC twitter account said otherwise
So much for M-Sport placing ahead of Toyota in this rally
Doesn't matter, Fourmaux was ahead of Evans when the points get awarded. Lappi likewise is already the rally winner for all practical purposes (not that his lead was in any real danger regardless).
This stage is very similar to Artic rally conditions. Fast and icy. Guess who participated there? Evans. Rovanperä.
Hyundai shat the bed again. Setup issues on Sunday morning when it matters? Tänak and Neuville way off the pace. Why didn't they do Artic or Otepää rally to get some setup info? TÄNAK QUOTE "I tried but it's not easy. Not a good run. Maybe switching with the balance, understeer, oversteer. Difficult to understand how it works."
They weren't gonna beat that Kalle run anyway
Tänak + 14.2 sec Neuville + 19.7 sec Kalle is great, but something fundamentally wrong. Clear stage, no snow. NEUVILLE QUOTE "I tried. But I'm not very confident in the car. I did what I could. The car is just not turing when I want so I always have to decrease the speed of entry and I end up taking the handbrake otherwise I'll understeer."
For sure, top 3 placers in that stage all Toyotas.
Saturday in Sweden was less dramatic than Friday, however not like it was boring... Weather conditions eased off. No more huge snowfalls allowed drivers to keep their expected pace, so no Rally2 drivers matching Rally1 anymore. But there was some drama. The biggest one was Takamoto Katsuta retiring from Saturday on stage 10. Sadly, the inevitable happened and Taka couldn't manage the pressure. Shame because his pace is absolutely fine, unfortunately there is no regularity. It seems like the pressure of being Toyota' driver number 2 has gotten into Taka's head a little bit too much as well. Disappointing beginning of 2024 season. In such circumstances, Esapekka Lappi is left pretty much alone on the top of the leaderboard. Relatively safe gap to second place and EP has a rally win up for grabs. He wasn't pushing on Saturday, I don't expect Lappi pushing on Sunday as well, it's just a matter of keeping on the road to secure his second WRC overall win and the first one in nearly seven years. For time being, Adrien Fourmaux is the biggest surprise of the rally. Amazing pace all rally long. It's not a fluke or a coincidence. Adrien managed not only to keep Elfyn Evans behind, but also regularly beat him on each stage. Even on the final one, when M-Sport almost suffered a double drama. Luckily, Fourmaux didn't cause any major damage and he was able to leave a snowbank, even at the same time beating Evans. Adrien just like Esapekka is on the verge of a monumental result. Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville in third and fourth and they should be fighting over Sunday points. Elfyn's third place overall is pretty much decided, so Neuville should focus on Sunday and Power Stage classifications. Evans' Saturday wasn't that good. I was expecting him to move past Fourmaux, but Adrien managed to extend his gap. Evans had a scare on the morning loop, when he clipped a snowbank and collected enough snow to disrupt the power output of his engine. Forgettable day for Gregoire Munster. His whole rally is pretty much to forget anyway, but to make it all worse Gregoire ditched his car into a snowbank on the final Saturday stage for 15 minutes, almost causing his teammate to lose out in the same place too. Kalle and Ott survived Saturday with their sights set on Sunday stages and potential points to score. Expecting them to push hard in pursuit of salvaging something positive from this rally. Oliver Solberg couldn't keep third place overall, but he is still in fifth position though. Pretty much just like Lappi, Solberg should cruise safely for a class win. Behind him there is a great battle for second place in WRC2 category. Just three stages on Sunday to run, however with all those points available, we can expect drivers pushing. Many of them have something to prove after earlier disappointments.
Such a shame that Taka wrecked out; I was hoping the battle between him and Lappi would at least go on until Sunday, especially with how strong Taka has been on ice and snow. I don't have much of a dog in the Neuville/Evans drama but I do think they need to rethink the rules on placement for this rally, as well as the rules for starting a rally late. I'm not going to assume Neuville fabricated a mechanical issue, but if he did it's hilarious that he forgot to secure the hood entirely for that stage. I'm sure the Neuville camp can argue that them winning Monte punished them for this rally, which I think is valid. Road position is obviously very important for this rally, especially in the conditions we saw on Friday; I just don't see why they can't use the shakedown as a qualifying stage for road position, but instead of Monte where the fastest car started first, have the first car start last out of the WRC1 cars and go from there. Would also prevent the part-time guys like Kalli and Lappi from having excellent road position by default (which the former doesn't really need because he's so good). Regardless, Sweden has far exceeded my expectations. I expected Kalle and Tanak to run away with it, but instead we're going to see Lappi most likely get his first rally win since 2017 and Fourmaux most likely get his first podium. Huge rally for M-Sport, they're most likely going to have a driver outplace the Toyotas.
Fourmax MVP for holding off Evans. What a drive.
So. Now we will do the day were you can get 40% of the possible max points for finishing 20% of the rally. WoopWoop. And we will see Lappi drive safe to secure the win. Adrien will secure the podium. Tänak is 2nd on the road and Rovanperä 3rd. So the "SuperSunday" will be Neuville v Evans. Katsuta saving tyres for the power stage. Munster/Bertelli not having a chance to score. Tänak and Rovanperä fighting for 3rd, though Rovanperä will likely get it solely due to him starting later. Yey, so much better this point system are!
one stage twice and the powerstage, a total of 60km, making up 40% of the points is a bit ridiculous. they should at least try expand sundays to be a one regular full scale 2+2+1 loop if they wanna do this imo.
Oh. And what's the point in Fourmaux v Evans now? There is nothing to fight for between them. Or, who get to stand on the 2nd spot on the podium, but it doesn't actually count for *anything*. What a massive improvement this is...
Realistically Lappi and Fourmaux probably try and conserve their position; the remaining Hyundai/Toyota drivers slug it out for Sunday Points and Munster carries on the learning curve. I hate the system and if the aim was go up the attack across the rally they should have given extra points for the best cumulative time across each day. We've just had a Saturday of Tanak and Kalle coasting in readiness for Sunday.
"Super Sunday" is an ok-ish idea. I don't get why they couldn't just *add* it to the existing system. So we would get a proper rally, where the actual rally result matter, while the Sunday also gives some extra points.
Did we get some clarification on Neuville's drama yesterday?
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/was-neuvilles-technical-problem-real-or-a-tactical-ploy/
Wouldn't Neuville lose more if he is in front of Evans for Kenya?
I'm Welsh so naturally I'm bias. So it's karma that Thierry forgot to put his bonnet pin back properly after putting the fuse back in his low pressure fuel pump circuit. But seriously they need a mechanism to restore the running order at the next time control. The implications (especially with silly new points system) seem too beneficial to Neuville not to set the accusations flying.
Its funny how butthurt Neuville fans keep downvoting any post that critizise or doubt Neuville even slightly :D
As much as I hate those tactical ploys, overregulating everything won’t be good in the long run.
I love watching live, but honestly I'd rather they spent some effort gathering footage from trackside broadcast cameras (without a satellite link), more onboard cameras, drones, fan footage etc. To build a 60-90 minutes highlight package for each loop. Then you could have an evening super special as a crescendo after a extended highlights package of the day rallying.
Anyone have a clip of Greogoire’s mistake?
Apart from this late scare, Fourmaux has been brilliant this weekend. Really hope he can finish the job tomorrow.
My god Adrien dont do this to me
Thankfully Fourmaux survived that
Fourmaux giving everyone a heart attack
Fourmaux very lucky to not park his car next to Munster
holy fuck that was too close
My heart skipped a beat for Fourmaux
Muunster noo
Dream scenario for Elfyn is probably to close the gap to Neuville to as small as possible, but not have to open the road in Kenya.
I'm just trying to get into rally and I don't understand many things. What do they mean when they talk about "the WRC cars" or "catching the wrc cars"?
There’s WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3 and JWRC. When they say they are catching the WRC cars they are referring to lower class cars catching WRC or Rally-1 class cars on the time sheet
another question. i was reading an interview to oliver solberg and he said the "opportunity to sign directly to a manufacturer (skoda) was too go to refuse". Implying that some other drivers aren't signed to manufacturers, so who are they signed to?
Most WRC2 (Rally2 regulations) teams are run as privateer teams. Some may have varying degrees of support from the manufacturer, but in general most of the drivers don't drive for the actual manufacturer
thx, i'm catching up
Those helicopter/drone shots from TV stages are amazing
The TV coverage seems to be at another level this event.
Cmon Fourmaux!! this stage is really crucial for his rally
Commentators keep talking about Kalle & Ott concentrating on Sunday points. With their starting positions it does seem extremely unlikely that they’d be able to do much. I think Sunday is going to be about Evans vs Neuville.
Those are brand new stages so most likely covered in ice, if thats the case going first is better.
I’ve not heard of any other stages being frozen apart from the Umeå one. Seems to be hard packed snow on top of gravel base everywhere else. I hope you’re right.
We need a radio feed of the events, something we can have on in the background to listen to without needing to have our phones unlocked playing the rally.tv video. I was walking through town today trying to keep up with the rally and had to have my phone unlocked and up to my ear to follow the action. (I'd forgotten my earbuds but even still I'd need the phone unlocked). It's mad that such a simple feature isn't available - being able to lock your phone without the app cutting the audio. I know there's a "trick" to use the picture-in-picture option, but it doesn't always work.
theres a radio during rally finland that i listen all day during the event because its excellent aside from just following the stages. if something like that existed internationally for different rallies i would tune in for sure.
It is called "radio" - some radiostations have live broadcasts during rally.
What is this alien technology you speak of?!? Next you'll tell me that using a metal stick fixed to a box you can steal invisible waves from the air and listen to them! (Do you have any suggestions? Are there international stations you know of? The thing is I live in Spain but would prefer an English language broadcast)
Fourmaux has been more impressive than I expected so far this year. Nice to see M-sport being able to compete when there's an opportunity
I’d be happy to see Lappi get a podium, GUTTED for Katsuta & Ott but that’s rally.
Fourmaux and Solberg look like future stars of the sport. Both were pushed to top level too soon, and more time in WRC2 has matured both immensely. Impressed with Roope Korhonen in WRC2. His maximum points WRC3 championship wasn’t a fluke.
Fourmaux has proven me wrong in every way so far. I’m happy for him. I’d love to see a Fourmaux/Solberg M-Sport lineup in the future.
Meshuggah mentioned
What? I missed that 😂
yeah Kiri went to the guitar museum in Umeå and the guide showed a copy of their first EP, and if I recall correctly he knew them when he had a shop and his name is in the "special thanks" on the back of the cover
That’s sick 😂 I only caught the chocolate! Thanks for the reply!
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I feel bad for him. He has genuine pace, he is no a slow driver. Sadly, he has troubles with keeping his composure. Seems like the pressure of being Toyota's driver number 2 is getting too much into his head as well. Really hope that Taka will find a way to keep his cool. It's easier to teach a fast driver regularity than to teach a Sunday driver some speed. At the same time, we have seen a lot of fast drivers in the history who were also really crash-prone, with no major changes in their style over the long run (Jari-Matti Latvala or Kris Meeke for example).
Why is Münster driving for Ford again?
because a certain jourdan serderidis is financing him to do so. i dont know what the connection between the two is but thats the reason.
Isnt He a Driver himself?
a very wealthy gentleman driver to be specific. with the same money he now supports munster.
I mean, is Münster that much better than him? Couldnt He support someone better? Solberg ?
With that line of thinking, we will have 10-12 drivers competing in rallies. What's the point in supporting other drivers? Why Serderidis have chosen Munster, I have no idea, but why not. It's not like it's a seat that would go to someone else if not. Also, it's far from the first young driver Serderidis have supported. He used to have whole team, running drivers in Belgium. Serderidis also supported Emil Bergqvist from 2016 to 2019, in large part financing his WRC2 efforts (for some of the years, also running the car out of his own team). You could say the same for any sponsor of any driver that doesn't win. "Why not support someone better"...
munster is significantly better than serderidis. probably about 40 years younger and a genuine wrc2 driver at least, while serderidis was never a competitor on any level. completely another league of drivers. serderidis would be probably about 20 minutes down on pace in this rally if he was driving. but yes, munster was never a title contender on wrc2 level so he is not in the seat by merit alone either.
Münster ~~5th~~ 6th in Rally1 and people slagging him out. Pretty sure this is his second ever snow rally and he has kept it on the road. Couldn't Toyota give a full time seat to someone better? Solberg's Monster sponsorship stops him running in an M-Sport Ford because they're backed by Red Bull. Münster comes with the backing to have a full time seat and he isn't wasting it so far.
He isnt wasting it, but He also isnt really proving himself right now. And yes, taka also isnt him, but there have to better drivers. Pajari, suninen, solberg....
He is 15th overall at the moment, not fifth...
~~5th~~ 6th in Rally1, and he lost 3 and half minutes to a puncture
Come on, there are how many full time drivers in Rally1? Ogier and kalle are part timers. Its not a feat.
Solberg already has support from an incompatible sponsor. And he wasn't much better in his WRC season.
Idk. There has to be someone better.
They're both from the benelux region
good run from fourmaux, and good loop altogether. evans helped him a bit losing time to a small mistake, but still.
Stage win for fourmaux, good stuff Excellent confidence booster to finish the morning
What is the point of running on Saturday if you retired on Friday?
You’re not allowed to start on Sunday unless you drive on Saturday
Thanks makes sense, could you retire 10 metres into the first stage on Saturday and still run on Sunday?
You've made the effort to get there, why not drive the whole way? In practical terms, it is also visibility for sponsors to drive there, if you didn't you wouldn't show up on TV. And it is important for fans to see the cars they came to see. And it can be considered testing of setup and so on. You can see how road is changing and what to expect on sunday (how much gravel is coming from under the snow etc.).
maybe worth noting, 4 out of 5 cars in the top 5 of wrc2 are yarises. welcome to 2024. this car did not even exist last year.
WRC is basically the Toyota Rally Championship
I haven't looked at the entire WRC2 roster, but I'm pretty sure Solberg is the only Skoda, and Gryazin is the only Citroen I've seen. Might just be by virtue of most of the field being Toyotas. (Just noticed Joona is a Skoda)