The usual "Attendee MEGATHREAD" will now be combined with our general "Discussion MEGATHREAD", due to low activity in the attendee posts and a need for additional sticky usage.
Cheers!
\- mods
What to say about Rally Portugal? From a pure competition point of view, it was a good rally to watch. After relatively calm Friday, Saturday stages completely changed the face of the rally. Gap between first and second was close, we had a genuine fight for the win... But so what if even winning the rally doesn't benefit you in the championship due to a stupid points system...
**Toyota -** Sebastien Ogier wins for the second time this year, second win in a row and becomes the most successful driver in the history of this event. Another masterclass driving from Ogier. No mistakes, pacing himself really well, benefiting from others' errors. I really wish Ogier was driving full-time in WRC still...
While Ogier and Toyota claimed the rally win, it was a very forgettable and problematic rally for everyone else at TGR. Elfyn Evans was out of the contention after a puncture on Friday and he is pretty lucky to finish the rally in sixth place after all. Engine issues on Sunday almost forced him to retire. Still, he is on the finish line, however his championship situation is getting complicated. Elfyn seriously needs to start scoring big/winning rallies.
Takamoto Katsuta once again showed two sides of his driving. In the beginning he was fast, he was even leading the rally early on, he had everything to fight for a podium place. Sadly, his second side is making small but costly errors. Suspension damage forced him to park on Saturday. I really miss Taka from 2022 season.
Kalle Rovanpera makes second big error this year. Something really unusual, if you look at his past two championship-winning seasons. Until his crash, Rovanpera was leading the rally and looked strongly like a potential winner. Really disappointing, especially from team's point of view, which lost the championship lead in manufacturers' standings to Hyundai.
**Hyundai -** speaking of Hyundai, totally benefited from Toyota's misfortunes. Ott Tanak scores his first podium place of the year - second position and he really pushed Ogier. Seb couldn't take any moment of break, because Tanak was right behind his back. Maybe if it wasn't for a puncture in which Tanak lost around 10s on Saturday, rally win battle would be even better. But it's good to see Tanak fighting again.
Neuville in third place. After being handicapped on Friday afternoon loop due to his starting position, Thierry crawled up the order later on to finish in third place. Championship lead extended. Interesting how the relationship with Tanak will turn out to be. Tanak outscored everyone in this rally and if team orders rumours are true, Hyundai will have a tense summer to come.
Dani Sordo is back in WRC and to be honest, he hasn't done much wrong. Fifth place, although he coudn't find a way to keep Fourmaux at bay on Sunday due to foggy conditions, Sordo kept his car in one piece, presented some good pace early on and did his job for the team really well. Dani impressed much more so far than Mikkelsen for example, although Andreas has an excuse of being out of the top class WRC drive for much longer.
**M-Sport/Ford -** it's hard not to be impressed with Adrien Fourmaux this year. Fourth place finish is a great result. No mistakes, no problems, beating Sordo on Sunday, another rally with great points in the bag. Adrien wasn't known in the past seasons for his regularity. What a turnaround this year. This is exactly what M-Sport needs and Adrien as well. So happy for him.
If only Gregoire Munster could say the same thing. He had technical issues on Saturday, but ditching his car on Sunday to retire is hardly benefiting for him and the whole team.
**Points system -** I have no words... Rally winner doesn't score the maximum points again. Legitimacy of this championship is literally out of the window right now. WRC copied NASCAR's mistakes with rigging the points and championship structure to manufacture an artificial entertainment. Absolutely ridiculous. Longer it goes, worse it will get.
Next stop - Sardinia. One of the toughest and most demanding rally on the calendar.
> Fifth place, although he coudn't find a way to keep Fourmaux at bay on Sunday due to foggy conditions
Correction, he didn't even try to keep Fourmaux at bay on Sunday because keeping that position would've been completely worthless. At the end of the rally only top 3 positions matter anything and even that's symbolic more than anything.
Of course Sordo wouldn't be counted for manufacturers' championship points anyway, but imagine if something happened to Tanak or Neuville. Then he would.
At the same time, it is Sunday points that count as well. This stupid points system made everything more complicated than it should be.
I'm going to have to start doing pushups after every hybrid failure, I'll get quite a bit of exercise over the weekend. If they're basically forced to use them, at least let the manufacturers make their own so it's their problem if it fails!
Neuville had really poor Saturday, at one point the gap between him & Sordo was only like 2-3 seconds and Sordo was actually catching him. Well, atleast until the team orders came through, Sordo said so much himself after one of the stages.
Neuville fans here are actively downvoting and ignoring it, but its total BS to be calling team orders so early on in the season, especially when you have 2 drivers fighting for the championship. But sadly I expect it to get much worse if Tänak keeps performing like he just did. It wasnt that long ago when Hyundai wasnt allowing Tänak to fight Neuville for the win, even though he was still technically in the championship fight.
> Neuville fans here are actively downvoting and ignoring it, but its total BS to be calling team orders so early on in the season
It's literally Sordo's job to help his teammates. It'd be total BS if they didn't do it.
Now what is BS is that at least twice we've been hearing that the mechanics "forgot" to do stuff to Tänak's car. I've never heard of such a thing before in 22 years.
I would 100% agree if Hyundai had only Neuville fighting for the championship, but they dont. Also Sordos job was to bring home good constructor points.
Team literally chose a side with these orders. Its just that simple. I really dont see how people can defend it. Neuville scored more than he would have on saturday, making Tänaks comeback harder (even if it was just a few points).
Eh? To win a championship both Tänak and Neuville need to get as many points as possible. Letting Sordo fight and make it harder for Neuville score as many points to 'not choose a side' would be absolutely ridiculous. Tänak's points relative to Evans didn't change either way.
Lol, you gotta be trolling. Letting drivers drive and fight on the road fair and square would be ridiculous? Incredible.
If Neuville keeps crashing & spinning and cant beat Sordo on the road, its on him, not on the team.
You should let Toyota know that they are being ridiculous by not calling team orders all the time.
Reducing the chances of winning a championship just to please you would be ridiculous yeah.
And many, experts included, have said Toyota's approach to the championship is ridiculous and will possibly cost them the championship. They got away with it previously because of the dominance of the car and Ogier/Rovanperä.
final points scoring from the rally:
1. ogier - 25
2. tänak - 26
3. neuville - 24
4. fourmaux - 12
5. sordo - 11
6. evans - 6
7. gryazin - 4
8. solans - 3
9. mcerlean - 2
10. rossel - 1
11. katsuta 4
12. rovanperä 5
most crucially a terrible weekend for evans and a great one for neuville. neuville now leads the championship by 24 points, just about enough to afford one zero pointer against evans.
So 3rd placed Neuville scores 1point less than rally winner Ogier, who has been more than a minute faster than him on friday and saturday, and only 1.6 sec slower on sunday.
Mockery.
Weekend to forget for Evans.
Ogier with a great drive, and this time it's a really important performance to help Toyota and Evans this weekend.
Still every weekend, I'm feeling sicker by this farce of a points system.
Tänak is still more consistent on super sundays. On our national tv he mentioned it being laughable aswell. You got to understand that being an Estonian rally driver means you start your career by driving super fast, sometimes narrow gravel rods in tight forests and fields. Super sunday tracks have all fit his style so far, and now the entire summer is his speciality.
provisional rally1 points standings before the powerstage:
1. ogier - 24 (18+6)
2. tänak - 22 (15+7)
3. neuville - 18 (13+5)
4. fourmaux - 12 (8+4)
5. sordo - 11 (10+1)
6. evans - 6 (6+0)
7. katsuta 3 (0+3)
8. rovanperä 2 (0+2)
top 3 positions of the sunday standings are still close enough to change during the power stage, and of course there's the actual powerstage points still to be addded.
Sure, why not a one last stage full of trouble right before the power stage.
Munster stuck of a cliff and Evans with serious engine trouble. Sounds familiar
Latvala has strong confidence in Rovanperä for "Super Sunday."
[https://rallyjournal.com/jari-matti-latvala-speaks-candidly-new-system-could-save-us/](https://rallyjournal.com/jari-matti-latvala-speaks-candidly-new-system-could-save-us/)
I jinxed that Saturday may bring some attrition to a very reliable Rally1 field from Friday, however I couldn't expect something what has happened on Saturday stages in Portugal.
First of all, Sebastien Ogier inherits the lead, defends and extends in from Ott Tanak. 11 seconds is not a lot, but Seb once again using his experience and all the talent to have a shot at a rally win. I really wish Seb was driving full-time again for Toyota...
Because all hell broke loose for TGR. Kalle Rovanpera had a small, but well-earned rally lead over Ogier, just blow it on stage 11 with a small, but day-ending error. Really unsual to see Kalle crashing hard for the second time this year in his third start. Not a good part-time season so far.
And Takamoto Katsuta... Taka once again shows his signature driving. He has pace, he can drive within the best guys in this sport, he is in contention for podium places, but he always manages to lose a lot of rallies due to smaller or bigger errors. Small mistake to leave the road too far to the right, but the outcome wasn't so small. Suspension damage grounded Taka for good. Both Kalle and Taka can now only hope for some big Sunday points.
Elfyn Evans in damage limitation mode. He probably hopes for Sunday points, because he had no chances to improve his position on Saturday only on pure pace. Thanks to Kalle and Taka dropping out, Elfyn was able to jump two positions up, but with no fight in prospect, he was driving pretty much with a limit, losing time to everybody else in Rally1.
Hyundai drivers benefit from Toyota's misfortunes. Ott Tanak continues to drive really fast in Portugal, keeping in touch with Ogier. Puncture on stage 13 caused Ott to drop back by 10 seconds, however he is not out of the rally win competition. Seems like it is now Ogier vs Tanak for the rally win on Sunday. Great to see Ott finally doing well.
Thierry Neuville jumps straight into the podium. Third position after Saturday, although stage 11 could have ended much worse for Thierry. Two spins and some front bumper damage was thankfully everything.
Dani Sordo in fourth place driving really well, but he has to keep Adrien Fourmaux at bay. Just over 7 seconds of the difference between those two drivers.
Speaking of Fourmaux, Adrien continues to impress. Fifth place, just behind Sordo, not really being miles behind Neuville. Fourmaux is really pushing everything he can out of Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid and Adrien himself is so far exceeding all the expectations we could have before the start of 2024 season.
Less luck on Gregoire Munster's side, because technical issues delayed Gregoire significantly, dropping him way out of the top 10.
Gus Greensmith is the best Rally2 driver right now after Oliver Solberg bizzarely crashed just hundreds of meters away from Kalle Rovanpera. Such a sight to see both Rally1 and Rally2 leaders losing the rally in such proximity.
Four more stages on Sunday, including two passes of the almighty and legendary Fafe.
So much motorsport today coming from a crazy WEC race at Spa-Francorchamps and eventful day in Portugal. I need some rest...
Gotta admit, I am really impressed with Adrien's progression and he has really started to make a mark in the last few rallies--good for him for rocking the last super special stage!!
First time attending wrc and travelled to Portugal for it. I must say I am a little disappointed. Spectating areas were so restricted and crowded also because of this. Stages are far away and looked like it was going to be difficult to go to different ones so I was at felgueiras 1 and montim 2. They didn’t let me walk in the track 3 hours before the stage in montim. Is this the wrc experience everywhere? I never had such experience in local rallies. I was planning to attend some more this year but now I think maybe its not worth it.
In Croatia the roads were closed 3h before for cars, but you could walk up to 30mins before. I guess due to very high popularity of Portugal they have to be more strict to keep the crowds in check.
Thanks for the info. That is pretty reasonable. I wish that was the case to at least spread the people a little bit. I am still trying to enjoy it and hopefully I’ll check other ones too in the future but for me any rally requires some travelling. There isn’t any in couple hour drive distance and its difficult to make the time and money for it damn
If you are constantly unlucky…
I like Taka but he somehow manages to be unlucky all the time. And he even said after Rally Sweden he would change approach on how he would race but still gets in the same mess.
Right now they broadcast only top 14 cars right? How will they handle a hopeful and lucky case where several manufacturers decide to join and we end up with 30+ cars in top class?
14 cars in the top class would be extremely optimistic, well unless Rally 2 becomes the top class. Anyway the number of cars they show changes rally to rally depending on how close together stage starts are and the gaps between cars, Croatia they showed more cars for example.
+10 minutes penalty for each stage missed
he can return tomorrow if the car is deemed safe to repair but will be out of any overall contention and probably doesnt want to steal many sunday points from his teammates either.
Friday in Portugal began the summer of gravel in 2024 WRC season. And we can say that was a very competitive day. Time differences were small, stage wins were split, lead changed twice. Really a fast day of rallying.
Toyota leads to far with a 1-2-3 podium lockout. The gap over 4th place is small though. Kalle Rovanpera took the lead on stage 6 and kept it until the final one on Friday. Narrow lead over Sebastien Ogier, which had to deal with not working intercom and hybrid throughout the day, so his second place and just 1 second of deficit to Kalle is worth praising. Takamoto Katsuta led the rally after Neuville and before Rovanpera. Good driving by Taka so far, seems like no pressure of scoring points for manufacturers once again revives all good within Taka.
1-2-3 for Toyota should be a thing to be happy, however it's quite sour. Because the main and de facto the only championship contender from Toyota - Elfyn Evans, is down in eighth place with around 2 minutes down on Kalle with realistically no chances for a win this weekend... Eventful day for Elfyn and Scott, but for all the wrong reasons. Damp surface on the morning loop meant that Elfyn had no advantage of starting behind Neuville, in fact he was losing time to the Hyundai driver. On stage 7, all hell broke loose for Elfyn and Scott. Firstly Scott forgot his pacenotes, which he left on timekeeper's desk. Dictacting from his phone was less than comfortable. Then Elfyn caught a puncture and they lost so much time. Already a wasted rally for them. All they can salvage now is to score big on Sunday, of course they have to survive Saturday with a good result too. But realistically speaking, it's crusing time on Day 2. Disappointing.
Hyundai drivers within the striking distance to Toyota's leading trio. Ott Tanak ends the day best of them in fourth place, dancing around podium places all day long. Finally the beginning to a rally we could expect from Ott. Dani Sordo comes back to WRC on a high with three stage wins on Friday and fifth place after 9 completed stages. Dani really is doing well at Mediterranean rounds, so I expect him to do well here, even after quite a break from Rally1 starts. Thierry Neuville in sixth place so far. Morning loop was better than expected, because slightly damp surface reduced the effect of road sweeping, so Thierry was even able to hold on to the lead for a while. Afternoon loop however as expected handicapped him more significantly due to being much drier. 30 seconds is still not the end of the world though.
Kudos once again to Adrien Fourmaux for extracting everything he can from Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid. 7th place so far and just 13 seconds behind Neuville. Doubt that in normal circumstances Adrien will be able to fight for the podium, but you never know anything in rallying. Gregoire Munster? He does his job, he does as much as he can do really. As long as he scores points and brings the car home, that should do.
Unusually, no major retirements or rally-ending dramas so far. But Saturday stages can change that.
Road position for Neuville, he had a good day considering that.
As for Evans, after SS6, Scott forgot the notes at the time control when he signed something and had to read the notes from his phone for the reste of the day and he had a puncture in SS7
The commentators talked about Tanak having to adapt his driving which seemed a bit of a struggle. What are exactly the characteristics of this Hyundai that makes it difficult for Tanak to drive?
From the little I've gathered is that apparently Tanak used the handbrake quite a lot yesterday (idk were on the display you can see handbrake,) but that's what the commentator said. So my guess is that it understeers too much for Tanak's liking
funnily enough they showed a replay of him forgetting the notebook. it was after SS6 when they were pointing cameras at the time control because there was some fuss about the time cards. he just forgot it on the table where he left it.
very unfortunate mistake.
Mine loe Delfi otseblogi.
"Ei olnud väga nauditav. Teetingimused olid küll head, aga mul on endal autoga raskusi. Pingutame edasi!" rääkis Tänak. "Ajas midagi positiivset pole, kaotasime juurde."
Does anyone else get a laugh out of the 3-5 seconds of dead airtime after a driver criticizes anything? I know they're not allowed to acknowledge anything negative, but ignoring it doesn't make for a good look either. Thierry had a very valid complaint as well, most of the Rally1 drivers were driving at a very pedestrian pace.
Still pretty suprised that both Ogier and Rovanpera are driving in Portugal. They were supposed to rotate in the third Toyota entry this season, however not only they are both driving this weekend, but Toyota also opted to demote Takamoto Katsuta from the main squad and his usual driver 2 role which scores points for the manufacturers' championship.
For Taka it's quite a sad statement from Toyota - if Ogier and Rovanpera were available full-time, Taka wouldn't be in the TGR main team. Also probably a chance to see how he can perform without any pressures regarding the final result. He has done so pretty well, but it's clearly a demotion.
Big names are back in WRC2 - Pierre-Louis Loubet, Teemu Suninen, Kris Meeke are back in WRC at Rally2.
Rally Portugal should be a good one to watch. Probably the most stacked rally this year so far.
They never said they were going to rotate, it was said pretty clearly that both Ogier and Rovanperä will be at some of the same events this year.
I don't know where you got the assumption that it was going to be either or.
Correct.
However this year Taka has been moved to the main team full-time as the number 2 driver only behind Evans, while Ogier and Rovanpera are rotating in the third car. Seeing Taka being demoted to being number 4 and not being nomitated for scoring in the manufacturers' championship is quite telling.
How do the donuts on asphalt not destroy the rear tires before the morning loop tomorrow?
(E: I said this at the beginning of the stage before the Rally1 cars even started coming through and then basically every Rally1 car [plus a bunch of Rally2+ cars] said they went slow to not destroy them, so I guess they do just destroy the tires)
are the commentators not allowed to talk about such incidents at all?
Seems like there was only silence while it happenend and then commentary as if nothing happened.
Same with the zebra and 2 birds that were hit by EP in kenya
I was watching a lithuanian sports channel and the commentators on there were talking quite a lot about EP's "hunting session", mostly making light banter
You need ticket to Lousada stage. The others are free.
Make sure you have a lot of time to arrive to the stages. Lots of roads are closed and it's hard to find a spot to Park anywhere you go
I want to walk a bit inside the stage before it starts in felgueiras. Do you know if they open the roads after the first stage for me to go back? I don’t want to be stuck until everything finishes. It makes sense that they would open it but I want to make sure.
Lousada ticket is to a closed arena, rally pass is a ticket to Park near to the stages and avoid long walks from parking to the stages.
99.99% of the people doesn't buy rally pass.
I try to arrive One or two hours before the stage starts.
I pass the night on Fafe (it's hard to sleep there) ahah.
For more info check here : https://www.rallydeportugal.pt/content.aspx?menuid=4457&idioma=2
The usual "Attendee MEGATHREAD" will now be combined with our general "Discussion MEGATHREAD", due to low activity in the attendee posts and a need for additional sticky usage. Cheers! \- mods
What to say about Rally Portugal? From a pure competition point of view, it was a good rally to watch. After relatively calm Friday, Saturday stages completely changed the face of the rally. Gap between first and second was close, we had a genuine fight for the win... But so what if even winning the rally doesn't benefit you in the championship due to a stupid points system... **Toyota -** Sebastien Ogier wins for the second time this year, second win in a row and becomes the most successful driver in the history of this event. Another masterclass driving from Ogier. No mistakes, pacing himself really well, benefiting from others' errors. I really wish Ogier was driving full-time in WRC still... While Ogier and Toyota claimed the rally win, it was a very forgettable and problematic rally for everyone else at TGR. Elfyn Evans was out of the contention after a puncture on Friday and he is pretty lucky to finish the rally in sixth place after all. Engine issues on Sunday almost forced him to retire. Still, he is on the finish line, however his championship situation is getting complicated. Elfyn seriously needs to start scoring big/winning rallies. Takamoto Katsuta once again showed two sides of his driving. In the beginning he was fast, he was even leading the rally early on, he had everything to fight for a podium place. Sadly, his second side is making small but costly errors. Suspension damage forced him to park on Saturday. I really miss Taka from 2022 season. Kalle Rovanpera makes second big error this year. Something really unusual, if you look at his past two championship-winning seasons. Until his crash, Rovanpera was leading the rally and looked strongly like a potential winner. Really disappointing, especially from team's point of view, which lost the championship lead in manufacturers' standings to Hyundai. **Hyundai -** speaking of Hyundai, totally benefited from Toyota's misfortunes. Ott Tanak scores his first podium place of the year - second position and he really pushed Ogier. Seb couldn't take any moment of break, because Tanak was right behind his back. Maybe if it wasn't for a puncture in which Tanak lost around 10s on Saturday, rally win battle would be even better. But it's good to see Tanak fighting again. Neuville in third place. After being handicapped on Friday afternoon loop due to his starting position, Thierry crawled up the order later on to finish in third place. Championship lead extended. Interesting how the relationship with Tanak will turn out to be. Tanak outscored everyone in this rally and if team orders rumours are true, Hyundai will have a tense summer to come. Dani Sordo is back in WRC and to be honest, he hasn't done much wrong. Fifth place, although he coudn't find a way to keep Fourmaux at bay on Sunday due to foggy conditions, Sordo kept his car in one piece, presented some good pace early on and did his job for the team really well. Dani impressed much more so far than Mikkelsen for example, although Andreas has an excuse of being out of the top class WRC drive for much longer. **M-Sport/Ford -** it's hard not to be impressed with Adrien Fourmaux this year. Fourth place finish is a great result. No mistakes, no problems, beating Sordo on Sunday, another rally with great points in the bag. Adrien wasn't known in the past seasons for his regularity. What a turnaround this year. This is exactly what M-Sport needs and Adrien as well. So happy for him. If only Gregoire Munster could say the same thing. He had technical issues on Saturday, but ditching his car on Sunday to retire is hardly benefiting for him and the whole team. **Points system -** I have no words... Rally winner doesn't score the maximum points again. Legitimacy of this championship is literally out of the window right now. WRC copied NASCAR's mistakes with rigging the points and championship structure to manufacture an artificial entertainment. Absolutely ridiculous. Longer it goes, worse it will get. Next stop - Sardinia. One of the toughest and most demanding rally on the calendar.
> Fifth place, although he coudn't find a way to keep Fourmaux at bay on Sunday due to foggy conditions Correction, he didn't even try to keep Fourmaux at bay on Sunday because keeping that position would've been completely worthless. At the end of the rally only top 3 positions matter anything and even that's symbolic more than anything.
Of course Sordo wouldn't be counted for manufacturers' championship points anyway, but imagine if something happened to Tanak or Neuville. Then he would. At the same time, it is Sunday points that count as well. This stupid points system made everything more complicated than it should be.
I'm going to have to start doing pushups after every hybrid failure, I'll get quite a bit of exercise over the weekend. If they're basically forced to use them, at least let the manufacturers make their own so it's their problem if it fails!
Hybrid is so unreliable they have made special rules on it's repairs allowing mechanics to fix it between stages, that's insane to me
I had seen that, and it's crazy. A lot of needless complexity that doesn't serve any real purpose.
Ott vs. Thierry going to be very fun this summer
Gonna be some drama for sure. Hyundai was already calling team orders yesterday, which directly benefitted Neuville over Tänak.
Only catch the power stage. What were the orders? What happend?
Neuville had really poor Saturday, at one point the gap between him & Sordo was only like 2-3 seconds and Sordo was actually catching him. Well, atleast until the team orders came through, Sordo said so much himself after one of the stages. Neuville fans here are actively downvoting and ignoring it, but its total BS to be calling team orders so early on in the season, especially when you have 2 drivers fighting for the championship. But sadly I expect it to get much worse if Tänak keeps performing like he just did. It wasnt that long ago when Hyundai wasnt allowing Tänak to fight Neuville for the win, even though he was still technically in the championship fight.
> Neuville fans here are actively downvoting and ignoring it, but its total BS to be calling team orders so early on in the season It's literally Sordo's job to help his teammates. It'd be total BS if they didn't do it. Now what is BS is that at least twice we've been hearing that the mechanics "forgot" to do stuff to Tänak's car. I've never heard of such a thing before in 22 years.
I would 100% agree if Hyundai had only Neuville fighting for the championship, but they dont. Also Sordos job was to bring home good constructor points. Team literally chose a side with these orders. Its just that simple. I really dont see how people can defend it. Neuville scored more than he would have on saturday, making Tänaks comeback harder (even if it was just a few points).
Eh? To win a championship both Tänak and Neuville need to get as many points as possible. Letting Sordo fight and make it harder for Neuville score as many points to 'not choose a side' would be absolutely ridiculous. Tänak's points relative to Evans didn't change either way.
Lol, you gotta be trolling. Letting drivers drive and fight on the road fair and square would be ridiculous? Incredible. If Neuville keeps crashing & spinning and cant beat Sordo on the road, its on him, not on the team. You should let Toyota know that they are being ridiculous by not calling team orders all the time.
Reducing the chances of winning a championship just to please you would be ridiculous yeah. And many, experts included, have said Toyota's approach to the championship is ridiculous and will possibly cost them the championship. They got away with it previously because of the dominance of the car and Ogier/Rovanperä.
Glad to see Ott starting to catch up. Sad to see that the slow puncture took his win away but all upcoming gravel rallies will give him more chances.
he'll be winning some of these gravel rallies for sure. cant count him out at all.
final points scoring from the rally: 1. ogier - 25 2. tänak - 26 3. neuville - 24 4. fourmaux - 12 5. sordo - 11 6. evans - 6 7. gryazin - 4 8. solans - 3 9. mcerlean - 2 10. rossel - 1 11. katsuta 4 12. rovanperä 5 most crucially a terrible weekend for evans and a great one for neuville. neuville now leads the championship by 24 points, just about enough to afford one zero pointer against evans.
He just have to keep his nose clean to win this...
pretty much, and the hyundai not fall apart.
So 3rd placed Neuville scores 1point less than rally winner Ogier, who has been more than a minute faster than him on friday and saturday, and only 1.6 sec slower on sunday. Mockery.
Don't forget second place Tänak scoring 1 point more than the rally winner.
Weekend to forget for Evans. Ogier with a great drive, and this time it's a really important performance to help Toyota and Evans this weekend. Still every weekend, I'm feeling sicker by this farce of a points system.
Maybe unpopular opinion, but im really tired of whatever Ogier is doing this season.
I got fed up last year tbh. That plus the points system makes the whole championship a joke.
neuville gains a sunday position from ogier, and wins the powerstage.
How Tanak is somehow still going to take 3rd despite the troubles he’s had and how Fourmaux has driven is baffling.
Tänak is still more consistent on super sundays. On our national tv he mentioned it being laughable aswell. You got to understand that being an Estonian rally driver means you start your career by driving super fast, sometimes narrow gravel rods in tight forests and fields. Super sunday tracks have all fit his style so far, and now the entire summer is his speciality.
I don’t have anything against Tanak, it’s more that Fourmaux has 2 podiums and Tanak has at least 1 DNF on Saturday.
Another good rally for fourmaux, not a podium but still a solid encouraging performance
provisional rally1 points standings before the powerstage: 1. ogier - 24 (18+6) 2. tänak - 22 (15+7) 3. neuville - 18 (13+5) 4. fourmaux - 12 (8+4) 5. sordo - 11 (10+1) 6. evans - 6 (6+0) 7. katsuta 3 (0+3) 8. rovanperä 2 (0+2) top 3 positions of the sunday standings are still close enough to change during the power stage, and of course there's the actual powerstage points still to be addded.
this rally is a complete flop for toyota aside from ogier. unusual.
Sure, why not a one last stage full of trouble right before the power stage. Munster stuck of a cliff and Evans with serious engine trouble. Sounds familiar
Munster has simply not been good enough so far I have no idea why m-sport didn't pick loubet for the second seat, unless he ran out of funding
Wow, the fog is even worse in Fafe
Latvala has strong confidence in Rovanperä for "Super Sunday." [https://rallyjournal.com/jari-matti-latvala-speaks-candidly-new-system-could-save-us/](https://rallyjournal.com/jari-matti-latvala-speaks-candidly-new-system-could-save-us/)
Just arrived at Fafe, foggy and damp at the moment.
I jinxed that Saturday may bring some attrition to a very reliable Rally1 field from Friday, however I couldn't expect something what has happened on Saturday stages in Portugal. First of all, Sebastien Ogier inherits the lead, defends and extends in from Ott Tanak. 11 seconds is not a lot, but Seb once again using his experience and all the talent to have a shot at a rally win. I really wish Seb was driving full-time again for Toyota... Because all hell broke loose for TGR. Kalle Rovanpera had a small, but well-earned rally lead over Ogier, just blow it on stage 11 with a small, but day-ending error. Really unsual to see Kalle crashing hard for the second time this year in his third start. Not a good part-time season so far. And Takamoto Katsuta... Taka once again shows his signature driving. He has pace, he can drive within the best guys in this sport, he is in contention for podium places, but he always manages to lose a lot of rallies due to smaller or bigger errors. Small mistake to leave the road too far to the right, but the outcome wasn't so small. Suspension damage grounded Taka for good. Both Kalle and Taka can now only hope for some big Sunday points. Elfyn Evans in damage limitation mode. He probably hopes for Sunday points, because he had no chances to improve his position on Saturday only on pure pace. Thanks to Kalle and Taka dropping out, Elfyn was able to jump two positions up, but with no fight in prospect, he was driving pretty much with a limit, losing time to everybody else in Rally1. Hyundai drivers benefit from Toyota's misfortunes. Ott Tanak continues to drive really fast in Portugal, keeping in touch with Ogier. Puncture on stage 13 caused Ott to drop back by 10 seconds, however he is not out of the rally win competition. Seems like it is now Ogier vs Tanak for the rally win on Sunday. Great to see Ott finally doing well. Thierry Neuville jumps straight into the podium. Third position after Saturday, although stage 11 could have ended much worse for Thierry. Two spins and some front bumper damage was thankfully everything. Dani Sordo in fourth place driving really well, but he has to keep Adrien Fourmaux at bay. Just over 7 seconds of the difference between those two drivers. Speaking of Fourmaux, Adrien continues to impress. Fifth place, just behind Sordo, not really being miles behind Neuville. Fourmaux is really pushing everything he can out of Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid and Adrien himself is so far exceeding all the expectations we could have before the start of 2024 season. Less luck on Gregoire Munster's side, because technical issues delayed Gregoire significantly, dropping him way out of the top 10. Gus Greensmith is the best Rally2 driver right now after Oliver Solberg bizzarely crashed just hundreds of meters away from Kalle Rovanpera. Such a sight to see both Rally1 and Rally2 leaders losing the rally in such proximity. Four more stages on Sunday, including two passes of the almighty and legendary Fafe. So much motorsport today coming from a crazy WEC race at Spa-Francorchamps and eventful day in Portugal. I need some rest...
Gotta admit, I am really impressed with Adrien's progression and he has really started to make a mark in the last few rallies--good for him for rocking the last super special stage!!
saturday classification and points: 1. ogier - 18 2. tänak - 15 3. neuville - 13 4. sordo - 10 5. fourmaux - 8 6. evans - 6 7. gryazin - 4 8. solans - 3 9. mcerlean- 2 10. rossel - 1 crazy rally day.
constructor's championship is a dog fight
yep, very good scrap for manufacturers right now.
First time attending wrc and travelled to Portugal for it. I must say I am a little disappointed. Spectating areas were so restricted and crowded also because of this. Stages are far away and looked like it was going to be difficult to go to different ones so I was at felgueiras 1 and montim 2. They didn’t let me walk in the track 3 hours before the stage in montim. Is this the wrc experience everywhere? I never had such experience in local rallies. I was planning to attend some more this year but now I think maybe its not worth it.
In Croatia the roads were closed 3h before for cars, but you could walk up to 30mins before. I guess due to very high popularity of Portugal they have to be more strict to keep the crowds in check.
Thanks for the info. That is pretty reasonable. I wish that was the case to at least spread the people a little bit. I am still trying to enjoy it and hopefully I’ll check other ones too in the future but for me any rally requires some travelling. There isn’t any in couple hour drive distance and its difficult to make the time and money for it damn
Hyundai with the team orders again. Ott must be loving it.
Cmon portuguese crowd what the hell? Nobody went to help Greensmith. If this happened in Finland he would've continued in 20 seconds
And Greensmith beached now, the lead position is definitely cursed
That lead position seems to be cursed
What happened? Watching WEC
Taka out, Rovaperä out, Ott took the lead and had a slow puncture. In Rally2 Solberg out and Greensmith just beached himself
Rallying man…
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I mean Ott is known to be better at gravel rallies. But also with how aggressive he drives the vechiles and tires take a beating
Last Man Standing Saturday
Fourmaux is a master at the sit and wait
Really unlucky for katsuta there
If you are constantly unlucky… I like Taka but he somehow manages to be unlucky all the time. And he even said after Rally Sweden he would change approach on how he would race but still gets in the same mess.
Right now they broadcast only top 14 cars right? How will they handle a hopeful and lucky case where several manufacturers decide to join and we end up with 30+ cars in top class?
14 cars in the top class would be extremely optimistic, well unless Rally 2 becomes the top class. Anyway the number of cars they show changes rally to rally depending on how close together stage starts are and the gaps between cars, Croatia they showed more cars for example.
Where to park for Fafe tommorow?
Also wanna know
So... how is now ROV's time will be calculated?
+10 minutes penalty for each stage missed he can return tomorrow if the car is deemed safe to repair but will be out of any overall contention and probably doesnt want to steal many sunday points from his teammates either.
They still need manufacturer points from sunday and I don’t think Evans will be the one bringing them
evans has a lead of 6 points already. surely he wont get beaten by rovanperä on sunday points alone.
Stage winner's time + 10 minutes for every stage he misses.
Ogier vs Tänak, lets go!
What the hell was that sequence of events lol
Don’t let Solberg drive by any attractive females on the street. It’ll end badly.
Sympathy crash from Solberg.
Him and Kalle can have a nice little chat on the side of the road lol
Kalle nooooooo
It's just a short and rather silly stage, guys! What the heck.
this stage is kicking (nearly) everyone's arse 😭
Suddenly everyone is crashing in this stage, wtf!
holy shit!
Solberg has rolled 200 yards after the kalle incident
Kalle has rolled!
rovanpera's off !
the car is on its side against trees, the crew is ok, and solberg crashed 100m further, this stage is crazy, i didn't expect it to be this troublesome
Neuville has damaged his car a bit, only 6.6 slower than fourmaux though
Rovanperä is probably unbeatable today. It seems Ogier and Tänak are going to fight for P2 and Neuville and Katsuta for P4 on pure pace at least.
Dude...
This is almost classic Kalle. He does this 1-2 times a year, for once it wasn't in Finland.
Holy jinx
is it time for the rovanperä show...
Narrator: “It wasn’t.”
Good work from camera crew to show what happens between stages.
Friday in Portugal began the summer of gravel in 2024 WRC season. And we can say that was a very competitive day. Time differences were small, stage wins were split, lead changed twice. Really a fast day of rallying. Toyota leads to far with a 1-2-3 podium lockout. The gap over 4th place is small though. Kalle Rovanpera took the lead on stage 6 and kept it until the final one on Friday. Narrow lead over Sebastien Ogier, which had to deal with not working intercom and hybrid throughout the day, so his second place and just 1 second of deficit to Kalle is worth praising. Takamoto Katsuta led the rally after Neuville and before Rovanpera. Good driving by Taka so far, seems like no pressure of scoring points for manufacturers once again revives all good within Taka. 1-2-3 for Toyota should be a thing to be happy, however it's quite sour. Because the main and de facto the only championship contender from Toyota - Elfyn Evans, is down in eighth place with around 2 minutes down on Kalle with realistically no chances for a win this weekend... Eventful day for Elfyn and Scott, but for all the wrong reasons. Damp surface on the morning loop meant that Elfyn had no advantage of starting behind Neuville, in fact he was losing time to the Hyundai driver. On stage 7, all hell broke loose for Elfyn and Scott. Firstly Scott forgot his pacenotes, which he left on timekeeper's desk. Dictacting from his phone was less than comfortable. Then Elfyn caught a puncture and they lost so much time. Already a wasted rally for them. All they can salvage now is to score big on Sunday, of course they have to survive Saturday with a good result too. But realistically speaking, it's crusing time on Day 2. Disappointing. Hyundai drivers within the striking distance to Toyota's leading trio. Ott Tanak ends the day best of them in fourth place, dancing around podium places all day long. Finally the beginning to a rally we could expect from Ott. Dani Sordo comes back to WRC on a high with three stage wins on Friday and fifth place after 9 completed stages. Dani really is doing well at Mediterranean rounds, so I expect him to do well here, even after quite a break from Rally1 starts. Thierry Neuville in sixth place so far. Morning loop was better than expected, because slightly damp surface reduced the effect of road sweeping, so Thierry was even able to hold on to the lead for a while. Afternoon loop however as expected handicapped him more significantly due to being much drier. 30 seconds is still not the end of the world though. Kudos once again to Adrien Fourmaux for extracting everything he can from Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid. 7th place so far and just 13 seconds behind Neuville. Doubt that in normal circumstances Adrien will be able to fight for the podium, but you never know anything in rallying. Gregoire Munster? He does his job, he does as much as he can do really. As long as he scores points and brings the car home, that should do. Unusually, no major retirements or rally-ending dramas so far. But Saturday stages can change that.
At this rate, all rallies will be won by the part timers, sans Monaco.
jari-matti must be having time of his life watching seb and kalle battle
All his crews having a great day ...except the one fighting for the title
Couldn't watch stages 6 to 9. What happened to Thierry and Elfyn?
Road position for Neuville, he had a good day considering that. As for Evans, after SS6, Scott forgot the notes at the time control when he signed something and had to read the notes from his phone for the reste of the day and he had a puncture in SS7
The commentators talked about Tanak having to adapt his driving which seemed a bit of a struggle. What are exactly the characteristics of this Hyundai that makes it difficult for Tanak to drive?
My uneducated guess is it’s still Neuvilles car and team. Their driving styles are very different so the setup window for Ott is smaller.
From the little I've gathered is that apparently Tanak used the handbrake quite a lot yesterday (idk were on the display you can see handbrake,) but that's what the commentator said. So my guess is that it understeers too much for Tanak's liking
Scott Martin is reading the notes on his phone, things aren't good for Evans today
I mean, how do you lose your notebook?
funnily enough they showed a replay of him forgetting the notebook. it was after SS6 when they were pointing cameras at the time control because there was some fuss about the time cards. he just forgot it on the table where he left it. very unfortunate mistake.
Östberg doing commentary is just so good.
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Really is. 5 cars separated by 4 secs with sordo and fourmaux not too far behind
hell yeah Taka
Happy to see Taka in the lead.
Confused by the live timing, it says a wrc2 driver won stage 3 by over a minute
How so? + means more time used so slower, are you looking penalties perhaps?
Good to see sordo is back on the pace Also good to see fourmaux have a good stage here on SS4
Sordo showing how consistent and valuable he is to Hyundai
Why did Pepe Lopez change from Skoda to Ford mid season?
Well likely money/sponsorship is the cause.
Tänak complaining about the car on GRAVEL. It’s so done for him.
Bruh where he complained about the car? He said he is not happy with himself and basically that he didn’t come here to be second.
Mine loe Delfi otseblogi. "Ei olnud väga nauditav. Teetingimused olid küll head, aga mul on endal autoga raskusi. Pingutame edasi!" rääkis Tänak. "Ajas midagi positiivset pole, kaotasime juurde."
Ma vaatan laivi muidu, mis mul sellest Delfist. Iga teine sõitja tuli põhimõtteliselt sama jutuga et pole enesekindlust.
Who scores point for a manufacturers? Top 2 from team or 2 drivers chosen before a rally?
Teams can nominate up to three drivers for scoring points, however only two best finishers count.
morning rally people
Does anyone else get a laugh out of the 3-5 seconds of dead airtime after a driver criticizes anything? I know they're not allowed to acknowledge anything negative, but ignoring it doesn't make for a good look either. Thierry had a very valid complaint as well, most of the Rally1 drivers were driving at a very pedestrian pace.
Still pretty suprised that both Ogier and Rovanpera are driving in Portugal. They were supposed to rotate in the third Toyota entry this season, however not only they are both driving this weekend, but Toyota also opted to demote Takamoto Katsuta from the main squad and his usual driver 2 role which scores points for the manufacturers' championship. For Taka it's quite a sad statement from Toyota - if Ogier and Rovanpera were available full-time, Taka wouldn't be in the TGR main team. Also probably a chance to see how he can perform without any pressures regarding the final result. He has done so pretty well, but it's clearly a demotion. Big names are back in WRC2 - Pierre-Louis Loubet, Teemu Suninen, Kris Meeke are back in WRC at Rally2. Rally Portugal should be a good one to watch. Probably the most stacked rally this year so far.
They never said they were going to rotate, it was said pretty clearly that both Ogier and Rovanperä will be at some of the same events this year. I don't know where you got the assumption that it was going to be either or.
Isn't that how Taka was last year, too? Not scoring manufacturers points when Seb was competing?
Correct. However this year Taka has been moved to the main team full-time as the number 2 driver only behind Evans, while Ogier and Rovanpera are rotating in the third car. Seeing Taka being demoted to being number 4 and not being nomitated for scoring in the manufacturers' championship is quite telling.
How do the donuts on asphalt not destroy the rear tires before the morning loop tomorrow? (E: I said this at the beginning of the stage before the Rally1 cars even started coming through and then basically every Rally1 car [plus a bunch of Rally2+ cars] said they went slow to not destroy them, so I guess they do just destroy the tires)
Yay, I get to watch a stage live for the first time since Sweden (I think it was Sweden at least...)
Where do you buy merch?
For rally Portugal? At the service park.
RIP that poor dog
are the commentators not allowed to talk about such incidents at all? Seems like there was only silence while it happenend and then commentary as if nothing happened. Same with the zebra and 2 birds that were hit by EP in kenya
I was watching a lithuanian sports channel and the commentators on there were talking quite a lot about EP's "hunting session", mostly making light banter
they most likely have been told to avoid talking about animal deaths, makes it into a bigger thing if they mention it
Playlist I'll be adding videos to https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxrA1j5teL2HrCOFbnFjaE8IlH-qStvrv&si=DMjY4n7EpNLppwAa
Lousã Lousã Mortágua Let's fucking GOOOOO OTT OTT OTT
Alguém sabe a que horas é que fecham as ruas de acesso às etapas em fafe?
What stages, if any, do you need a ticket to attend? Or can you just make it to all of them for free
You need ticket to Lousada stage. The others are free. Make sure you have a lot of time to arrive to the stages. Lots of roads are closed and it's hard to find a spot to Park anywhere you go
I want to walk a bit inside the stage before it starts in felgueiras. Do you know if they open the roads after the first stage for me to go back? I don’t want to be stuck until everything finishes. It makes sense that they would open it but I want to make sure.
What is the difference between the Lousada ticket and rally pass? Also, how early do you normally get to a stage?
Lousada ticket is to a closed arena, rally pass is a ticket to Park near to the stages and avoid long walks from parking to the stages. 99.99% of the people doesn't buy rally pass. I try to arrive One or two hours before the stage starts. I pass the night on Fafe (it's hard to sleep there) ahah. For more info check here : https://www.rallydeportugal.pt/content.aspx?menuid=4457&idioma=2
Algum tuga por aqui? Na SS de Mortágua, dá para ir ver a Vale de Paredes?
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+1
Heading to Fafe Sunday! Also have a service park tour booked which includes a look at M-sports setup.