Photo Credit: M-Sport The 2017 FIA World Rally Championship is now well underway, with the fifth round of the season taking to the crews to South America for Rally Argentina, one of the most popular events on the world rally calendar.
After just one event having been contested on gravel so far in 2017, Argentina starts a run of five consecutive loose surface events and will more than likely completely establish a pecking order in this unpredictable WRC season. Sebastien Ogier heads the championship after Monte-Carlo, Sweden, Mexico and Corsica but wasn't in the finest of form on the Mediterranean island that held round four. That was mostly down to the Fiesta RS WRC that he was driving suffering various issues, but testament to Ogier's desire and hunger to succeed, he still managed to finish second overall to increase his championship lead. Just thirteen points behind in the title race, Jari-Matti Latvala has had a fantastic start to life as a Toyota Gazoo Racing driver. With two podium finishes and one win, Latvala was clever in Corsica, winning just one stage but it effectively netting him an extra six points as he won the Power Stage and overhauled Craig Breen for fourth by just 0.1 seconds. As a previous winner of Argentina and the pace-setter last year, Latvala will be in the mix this weekend. The nearly man delivered on his early-season promise in the French sunshine, with Thierry Neuville taking the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC's first win after squandering two chances over the winter rallies to make it four different winners in four different cars from the first four rallies. Neuville and Hyundai have arguably been the strongest package in 2017, so could the sky be the limit for the promising Belgian? Ott Tanak slipped to fourth in the drivers standings after his most disappointing rally of the year in Corsica, but the Estonian has still done a very credible job in the new and improved Fiesta RS WRC. Two podiums and three top fives is a great start to his season, and had it been any other rally his Corsican mistake wouldn't have cost him so dearly. As the WRC returns to gravel, Tanak will be looking to challenge for wins and will be very dangerous when we reach Poland in June. Dani Sordo finds himself fifth in the standings after four rallies, on the back of a peculiar podium finish in Corsica. The Spaniard never really seemed at one with his Korean machine, and with Andreas Mikkelsen testing an i20 last week speculation was rising about Dani's WRC future. Don't believe the hype though. Sordo has a contract in his back pocket for the 2018 season and no matter how frustrating it may be for us to see him struggle to match the top pace, he is a consistent points finisher which is vital for Hyundai's push for their first manufacturers crown. Sixth is where you'll find Ireland's Craig Breen in the championship, despite the Citroen star missing Mexico and contesting Monte-Carlo in a DS3 WRC. The man from Waterford has finished fifth on all three of his WRC outings thus far in 2017, so will be hoping to progress up the leaderboard in Argentina, but it'll be a tough ask with the South American stages ready to bite the inexperienced. Kris Meeke sits seventh, but is a lot of people's favourite to steal his second victory of the year in Argentina. There are a few reasons for this. The Ulsterman's lower starting position in comparison with his rivals is a good aid, plus the C3 WRC's pace in both Mexico and Corsica was sublime. Add to that Meeke's inherent natural speed and the fact he has one this event before, it is highly probable that Kris will be running at the front this weekend. "This is where my season must start," are the words coming from Kiwi Hayden Paddon's mouth ahead of the WRC's only South American round. The driver of Hyundai #4 has endured a self confessed miserable start to the season with the highlight being a fifth place finish on Mexico. Argentina looks to be the perfect place for Paddon to rejuvenate his season as gravel is his preferred surface and he won this event 12 months ago. Elfyn Evans too has had a slightly lacklustre 2017 so far, with small driver errors and mechanical issues blighting his campaign. After a season away from the sport's top flight, Evans has matured as a driver so we are just waiting to see a consistently quick weekend-long performance. It could happen in Argentina, the Welshman grabbed his maiden WRC podium there two years ago. Juho Hanninen is need of a strong result on round five of the championship after some flashes of speed have been forgotten due to his inability to keep the Yaris WRC on the road across a rally weekend. With Andreas Mikkelsen looking more and more likely to get a factory seat and Esapekki Lappi joining the team competitively in Portugal, the pressure is on the Finn to deliver and justify his place in Tommi Makinen's squad. Mads Ostberg and the Onebet Jipocar World Rally Team make a welcome return to action in Argentina. The Norwegian contested Rally Sweden but didn't score after the rear wing of his Fiesta detached itself in the Swedish forests, although Ostberg did claim the Colin's Crest Award. Argentina has been good to Mads in the past, and having had the advantage of being able to test in Argentina unlike the factory drivers who aren't allowed to test outside of Europe, could he be a real dark horse? Round five of the WRC gets underway this week, and to be honest if you ask me, it's hard to look past a Kris Meeke victory.
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Photo Credit: M-Sport The 2017 FIA World Rally Championship wrote its own pre-season headlines. Faster, closer, more exciting. The WRC: back to its best. The hype only increased with Volkswagen's sudden withdrawal after Wales Rally GB last year in the wake of the company's emission scandal, with the driver market exploding into action. It was a step into the unknown for everybody, with the full time return of Citroen and Toyota's first involvement in the sport this century.
But has it been as good as the billing it set itself? You'll undoubtedly have your own opinion, but I'm here to tell you that this is shaping up to be one of the best World Rally Championship seasons we've ever witnessed. The new regulations were always going to be a positive thing. A level playing field, - made even more equal with championship's most dominant team ever waving goodbye - more aggressive aerodynamics, increased speed and more noise was a recipe that had fans licking their lips. Some will argue that the action would have been as close as it is with all four manufacturer teams relatively evenly matched even if the 2016 regulations had stayed in place as VW's exit is the main reason for the even keel, and to an extent I accept that, but there are three reasons that flaw this argument. Firstly, with new regulations, as is being shown in F1 with Ferrari usurping Mercedes, the pecking order can so easily be reversed. Secondly, new and more exciting cars and with it a fresh change is always going to ramp up excitement, and finally and perhaps most crucially I doubt that Toyota would have been as close as they are to the front if they had to develop a car that others had been using in one way or another since 2011. This even playing field has accelerated from a Rogan Josh to a Vindaloo by the driver-market earthquake Volkswagen created. Each of the four manufacturers has a genuine title contender, with Citroen and Hyundai already having Kris Meeke and Thierry Neuville and VW refugees Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala joining M-Sport Ford and Toyota respectively. Better yet, because Ogier isn't 100% at one with his Fiesta WRC, he hasn't truly been the fastest man on any of the four rallies this season despite leading the championship. We have seen four different winners from the first four rallies, each victor competing in a different car for a different team. Ogier took the Monte with Latvala stunning everybody in Sweden to lead the championship, before Meeke dominated Mexico but for a late Power Stage scare and Neuville to deliver on his early season promise on Corsica. The only thing that could have improved all of this would have been Andreas Mikkelsen's inclusion in the series, as I firmly believe he would have been a major player in the 2017 title race. When was the last time the WRC witnessed four different manufacturers taking the win on the first four rallies? Good question! The answer: 1986. 31 years ago. Do you now start to see my point...? There are several factors that contribute to a great season's rallying, and it goes without saying that we will all have different views on this one. But few wouldn't include unpredictability and a good title fight on their hit list. 2017 so far is delivering both, although we may all be left a tad disappointed when Ogier inevitably lifts that fifth world title as in my opinion he is likely to do. But even that isn't as dull as it seems. Look deeper than the raw statistic and it is a major moment of WRC history. Ogier will have had to work very hard for this one against a high quality field of drivers we haven't seen the likes of for at least a decade. And in winning he would become one of few drivers to win a championship with more than one team. Only Walter Rohrl and Juha Kankkunen can claim to have achieved such a feat. That's all if's, but's and maybe's, but what can't be doubted is that I cannot wait for the remaining nine rallies of the year. In theory, it can only get better with the stories looking to write themselves. Ott Tanak and Craig Breen are on the way to becoming WRC winners while Esapekka Lappi will get a Yaris WRC for the remainder of the European rounds. Mads Ostberg could make an impact, Hayden Paddon is bound to improve and what will happen to MIkkelsen? WRC 2017: All show and no go? Quite the opposite. Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport After four rallies in the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship, we have seen four different winners for four different teams in four different cars on four varying surfaces. On one of the most prestigious rallies of the year, the Tour de Corse, it was Thierry Neuville who finally got his and Hyundai's first win of the season that had been destined to happen for some time.
This result marks the Belgian's third victory at world level having won Rallye Deutschland in 2014 and Rally d'Italia Sardinia last year. Neuville, unlike in Monte-Carlo and Sweden where he threw away his potential victory, didn't lead this one from the front. Instead, despite pushing to and sometimes over the limit, the Hyundai star struggled to match the front running pace of Kris Meeke and Sebastien Ogier on Friday, but come Saturday the i20 Coupe WRC had caught and passed Ogier's Fiesta RS WRC for second place which became first with Meeke's exit. An epic fight was on the cards between Ogier and Neuville but when Ogier too hit troubles Thierry managed his pace to take a well deserved victory that elevates him to third in the drivers standings. Sebastien Ogier took in many ways an unlikely and frustrating second place, but kept up his run of scoring a podium on every rally this year. The local man dominated the Tour de Corse six months ago for Volkswagen but couldn't quite match Meeke's Citroen, and was never allowed to challenge Neuville's Hyundai after his M-Sport machine developed a hydraulic issue. Worse still, on Sunday morning his car developed a mysterious electrical issue that left the 2013, 14, 15 and 16 World Champion agitated, frustrated and tight lipped. Second was a welcome surprise given he had slipped to third prior to the Power Stage. Dani Sordo capped Hyundai's best weekend of the year so far with third place on the Mediterranean island in his i20 Coupe WRC. It was a strange event for the Spanish ace, who is known for his skills on the black stuff. Sordo came to the stage ends utterly bewildered and unhappy as he had no feeling at all in the car. Sometimes he would be a lot slower than expected, other times he would be there or thereabouts and actually on the front-running pace. He surrendered third in the final stage but wasn't annoyed to see a man he felt deserve the place come out on top. Jari-Matti Latvala had a fairly anonymous Tour de Corse in his Toyota Yaris WRC, but did enough to maintain his hold on second place in the championship thanks to a fourth place he snatched from the hands of Craig Breen by the smallest of margins, 0.1 seconds. The Finn put in an inspired drive to claim the place, claiming all five bonus points in the Power Stage to take 17 points home to Finland. He's missed the podium the last couple of events, but this has been a fantastic start to the season for Latvala and Toyota Gazoo Racing. Craig Breen's agonising loss to Latvala in the Power Stage summed up Citroen Racing's weekend. Breen, who has good experience of the Corsican rally, was setting impressive times all weekend in a rally that reminds of him of the narrow lanes of native Ireland, but a broken intercom and fading brakes slowed his charge. He therefore netted fifth like he has on his previous two outings this year, but was deserving of more in all honesty. Nevertheless it's been a fantastic start to the year for the C3 WRC pilot. It certainly hasn't been a fantastic start to the season for New Zealand's Hayden Paddon. The Kiwi was hoping to properly start his season on Corsica after taking second on Rallye Sanremo in an i20 R5 but a lack of confidence put him into No Man's Land with nobody to battle. He was entertaining in the event closing Power Stage, pulling the handbrake excessively for the fans as he longs for the WRC's return to gravel for the next five events. Andreas Mikkelsen took his second WRC2 win of the year and continued Skoda Motorsport's monopoly of the category in seventh overall, ahead of Teemu Suninen, Stephane Sarrazin and Yohan Rossel. Four R5 cars in the top 10 tells you that Corsica, as always, was ready to bite the world's finest with several big names falling foul to the treacherous mountain roads. Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans both slid their Fiesta RS WRC's wide and off the road on Friday and Saturday respectively. There may not have been much damage done but the end result was just as disappointing for Malcolm Wilson. Juho Hanninen was another to fall foul. The Finn heavily misjudged a left hander over a bridge and smacked his Yaris WRC off the side of said bridge, which led to his retirement. He set an impressive time on Saturday before binning it on Sunday, and with Mikkelsen's comfortable WRC2 win this weekend, Juho needs to pull something out the bag in Argentina. Latvala has proved the car is capable. The unluckiest men in France were Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle who were in charge of the event coming into Saturday's second stage, having won three of the previous five tests to hold a 16 second lead. It was looking like all the pre-season hype was coming true, following on from his dominant Mexican win Kris was out front on tarmac too. However, towards the end of SS6 the C3 WRC decided it wasn't going to help the Ulsterman to his first World title, and its engine blew with oil spewing from the car. No points scored. Disastrous, as it leaves Meeke 50 points down on Ogier after just four rallies. At least he got to enjoy a steak baguette and a beer in the Corsican sunshine. Citroen team mate Stephane Lefebvre rubbed salt into the wounds for the French team after breaking his suspension on Saturday. The youngster has failed to make it to the finish without incident at the wheel of a C3 WRC, and will be under pressure to bag solid points in Portugal when he returns to action. Corsica is over, which means we are four rallies down with nine to go. Sebastien Ogier remains in control despite not being the fastest, but that's what makes him so hard to beat. Even on a bad day he is there ready to pounce. The next round of the WRC is Rally Argentina in three weeks time. Look out for my analysis of WRC 2017 so far, coming soon to This Is Rally, where I examine what we have learnt so far this season, and whether 2017 has lived up to the high billing it set itself. |
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January 2018
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