Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport It's finally happened. Three time World Rally winner Andreas Mikkelsen has got his first competitive chance of driving a 2017 spec World Rally Car, competing for Citroen Racing on round seven of the championship in Sardinia. In this one-off drive, the Norwegian will replace Stephane Lefebvre to partner Kris Meeke and Craig Breen in a C3 WRC.
Mikkelsen has been actively and openly looking for a drive this season to keep himself match fit for a title assault in 2018, and with this deal to drive on the Mediterranean island, this is looking more probable by the minute. But how did Andreas end up in this situation, and what does this mean for 2017? Volkswagen rocked the WRC with their shock departure from the sport following the penultimate round of the 2016 season in Wales. That left its three drivers Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen all without a drive for the following season with just Rally Australia to convince rival teams they were worthy of employment. Ogier held all the cards in the driver market as four times World Champion, but it was Andreas who won the final rally for VW ahead of Ogier with Latvala having another disappointing weekend. Surely then with Ogier heading to M-Sport, the vacant seat at Toyota would go the way of rally winner Mikkelsen? You'd be wrong. Latvala signed for Tommi Makinen's squad and it proved to be a revelation for both team and driver. That left Mikkelsen on the sidelines, but dominant performances in a Skoda Fabia R5 in WRC2 and lacklustre drives from some of those in a WRC car have finally seen the Even Management client land a drive in a top team, but it's important to stress for the time being at least, this is a one-off. The clever money was on either M-Sport or Toyota to land Mikkelsen before the start of the 2017 season. Toyota as mentioned above had a seat to fill that was looking to be Esapekka Lappi's before Volkswagen's bombshell. The DMACK Fiesta drive was also free, but that deservedly went the way of British Rally Champion and WRC2 podium finisher Elfyn Evans after a sabbatical from the sport's top level. The same fate was now facing Mikkelsen, and it appears to be the other two WRC teams that are close to getting him on a long term deal. Andreas tested Hyundai's i20 Coupe WRC last month causing a rife of speculation but it would appear that there is no permanent agreement in place, not that we know of anyway. Citroen have stolen the march in bringing him in for Sardinia, and in all honesty they are the team that need him the most. Toyota wouldn't exactly not benefit from Mikkelsen joining, but Citroen are the manufacturer who currently sit last in the standings and were expected to be top of the tree after sitting out 2016 in order to focus solely on the development of the C3 WRC. For whatever reason it hasn't quite worked out so far in 2017 despite a Meeke win in Mexico and some impressive drives from Breen. It is the team's worst performing driver Lefebvre that steps down, a decision the man himself accepts "is in the best interest of the team." Despite being the unlucky one in not finding a drive for 2017, Mikkelsen is arguably in a very enviable position, such is the demand for his services. The only team he would arguably not improve by walking straight in is Hyundai with the German/Korean outfit finding the perfect balance and set-up with their driver line up. All teams will be monitoring Mikkelsen's performance in Sardinia as they look ahead to 2018 as Andreas will be a major coup for both the drivers and manufacturers titles next season. However obviously important Sardinia is for Citroen Racing, it is even more crucial for the Scandinavian behind the wheel. He has proved over the last few years and this season in an R5 that he is a front-running contender on all surfaces; now is his chance to deliver on the main stage. He will be forgiven for taking time to get up to speed, but remember the last time the chips were down and Mikkelsen had to deliver? He won Australia in commanding fashion. For now this deal remains a one-off drive, but this for me almost certainly guarantees Mikkelsen will be out there in 2018 and maybe even later this season. If he and Even Management are clever, due to the fact he is not contracted to anyone, they should try and secure a test in a Fiesta and in a Yaris which would mean Mikkelsen has sampled all four cars and in theory would therefore know the best place to be for 2018. Providing everybody wants to sign him of course. It could well turn out that Mikkelsen's disadvantage may turn into an advantage. But let's all hope he can nail it in Sardinia, as we all want to see the world's best drivers in the world's best cars.
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Photo Credit: M-Sport It's been four months, but World Champion Sebastien Ogier returned to the top step of the podium at the weekend on round six of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship, Vodafone Rally de Portugal. The win marked Ogier's fifth victory in Portugal to draw level with Markku Alen on the winners' list, but was only his first Portuguese triumph since the rally moved to its spiritual home in the hills around Porto.
Portugal was the first European gravel event with this new spec of World Rally Car, and experts and insiders were always quick to point out the true form book would be revealed from this rally onwards. Tantalising then, as throughout the event we saw seven different leaders, nine different stage winners and a top eight that at one point on Friday was covered by less than 10 seconds. Despite sweeping the stages of the loose gravel to the benefit of his rivals, Ogier was well in contention after Friday's action and on Saturday he made his move. Using all his talent and benefiting from others' misfortunes, the Frenchman opened up a 20 second lead that he would never relinquish to take career win number 40. It was timely too after the first non-podium of the campaign in Argentina. Continuing his rich vein of form, Hyundai's Thierry Neuville took his fourth straight podium in the i20 Coupe WRC but missed out on the hattrick of victories with second place. The Belgian's driving style doesn't really suit the stages in the north, with the emphasis often on sliding the car into corners which contradicts his precise style. Second was an impressive and important result though for the championship, especially considering with Power Stage points factored in he only dropped four points to Ogier. Hyundai capped off another strong rally with Dani Sordo and Marc Marti occupying the final step of the podium. Portugal was an impressive performance from the likeable Spaniard, who balanced speed with consistency to stay in the fight and crucially not drop out of it. He couldn't quite live with Ogier and Neuville's pace come Saturday and Sunday but this result is crucial for Hyundai Motorsport in the manufactures' championship. Fourth went the way of Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja. The Estonian led the rally after Friday's eye-watering scrap, but unfortunately the pressure of his M-Sport team mate hunting him down got to him, and Tanak ran wide on a right hander which damaged the suspension on his Fiesta RS WRC. Ott persevered and continued to claim another strong result to further bolster his already blooming reputation. There was deja vu for Craig Breen and Scott Martin as they brought their Citroen C3 WRC home in fifth. Involved in Friday's battle along with so many others, Breen's lack of experience of the Portuguese roads began to show at times as the weekend progressed, not being able to live with the ultimate pace of others around them. But once again the Irishman brought the car home as the highest placed Citroen, and such performances won't be going unnoticed by team management. Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt brought their DMACK shod Fiesta WRC home sixth after their agonising second place in Argentina. Evans' pace wasn't what it was in South America, but he could have been in the hunt for a podium if he hadn't punctured on Friday. A driver error on Saturday which saw him fly off the road into the undergrowth after overcooking the previous corner broke a damper and slowed the Welshman, but the Brit recovered for another top six result. Juho Hanninen took seventh overall and for the first time finished as the top Toyota driver and did so with two team mates instead of just one. The Yaris WRC pilot finished one place ahead of the OneBet Jipocar World Rally Team Fiesta of Mads Ostberg who was using DMACK tyres for the first time, while the other Toyota's of Jari-Matti Latvala and WRC debutante Esapekka Lappi rounded out the top ten. Latvala was leading the rally mid-way through the opening leg, but a low speed roll saw the Finn hemorrhage time. From then on he wasn't feeling well which affected his confidence, with Jari even spending Saturday night on a drip in hospital in order to recover liquids which seemed to help him on Sunday. Lappi put in an impressive debut performance, including a fourth place on the Power Stage to claim vital points for Toyota Gazoo Racing that keeps them ahead of Citroen Racing in the manufactures championship. Kris Meeke and Stephane Lefebvre yet again had disappointing rallies for Citroen. Lefebvre rolled his C3 in the first proper stage of the rally while Meeke ran wide and broke his suspension on Friday. Khalid Al Qassimi joined the team in a fourth C3 but wouldn't trouble the front runners, claiming 17th overall. Hayden Paddon and Sebastian Marshall made their WRC debut together four events early in Portugal after John Kennard had to step back through injury. The partnership is looking strong, but it wasn't given the full chance to blossom after electrical issues slowed the Kiwi driver and destroyed his rally after being right in contention early on. Encouragingly, Paddon's strong pace indicates that the signs are positive Hayden's disastrous season may be turning a corner. Portugal marked the first of three mandatory events in this year's WRC2 championship, so the battle was expected to be exhilarating. The early signs were contradictory however, with Andreas Mikkelsen opening up a lead of over three minutes in a Skoda Fabia R5 heading into the event-closing Fafe stage. However, the Norwegian left the road and scuppered a chance of a crushing victory, which was needless considering his advantage. This was a shame as he was running inside the top ten despite 14 WRC cars having entered the event. That left Pontus Tidemand and Teemu Suninen to squabble over the spoils, and incredibly Tidemand's 30 second cushion was almost wiped out with a puncture. With Skoda management's nails now beyond existence, M-Sport's Finn stopped the clocks 15 seconds faster and thus had to settle for second. Tidemand is now in the box seat for this season's title after four wins from four starts. WRC teams, take note. There's only a short break of two weeks before the WRC returns to action in Sardinia. The season is proving as captivating as ever, but the championship is narrowing into a two horse race between M-Sport's Sebastien Ogier and Hyundai's Thierry Neuville. Photo Credit: Skoda Motorsport Portugal hosts the sixth round of the exciting 2017 FIA World Rally Championship next weekend, with the famous event being contested in the north of the region for the second year in succession after a stint in the Algarve. The rally, won by Kris Meeke last year, is the first in a run of four European gravel events that could well go a long way in deciding who will be crowned the 2017 World Rally Champion.
Sebastien Ogier seems the most obvious bet for that accolade, and it is the Frenchman who heads to Western Europe at the head of the championship. However, the four times champion hasn't been dominating the series the way he was in a Polo R WRC. In fact, he seems to be struggling slightly in M-Sport's Fiesta RS WRC but such is his talent and cleverness, he consistently bags good championship points. Portugal is one of Ogier's strongest events, but that was when it was based down in the south. The all conquering Frenchman has yet to win this event in the north, but in all fairness he has only had one attempt at it. Jari-Matti Latvala was the last man to win this event when it was run in the Algarve region of the country, much to his then team mate's annoyance. The Toyota driver still sits second in the drivers standings after a mesmerising start to life with Tommi Makinen's new team, but has been off the pace the last few rallies so will be looking to round six to rectify this. One man who has no such pace worries is Hyundai's Thierry Neuville, who makes it three different teams represented at the top of the WRC drivers table as it stands. The Belgian upset the statisticians among us by denying Elfyn Evans the chance of becoming this season's fifth different winner from as many events in Argentina, but in claiming his second victory of 2017 Neuville achieved something that only Ogier has among the current crop of drivers in taking back-to-back WRC victories. Things are looking rather ominous for his rivals, as the Belgian continues to underline his serious title credentials. A win in Portugal and he will surely be considered the favourite to take the crown off Sebastien Ogier. Ott Tanak has had a great start to life back in the M-Sport World Rally Team for the third time, and underlined that with a fine podium in Argentina. The Estonian has long been touted as a future WRC winner having come close on a number of occasions now, can the Portuguese round see our first new winner in over a year? Dani Sordo has been disappointing thus far on the gravel in this new breed of World Rally car. The Spaniard took eighth in both Mexico and Argentina, but the result in itself doesn't really tell the full story. Hyundai's experienced campaigner will be looking for at least a top five next weekend to prove he still has the pace on the loose. All eyes will be on sixth place man Elfyn Evans in Portugal after the Welshman's gutsy performance last time out in South America. The DMACK driver lead the rally from the very start right up until the last stage, where a small mistake negotiating one of El Condor's many, narrow suspension bridges saw him lose out to Thierry Neuville by just 0.7 seconds. Heartbreaking, yes; but if there's one thing Evans' time spent in an R5 last year has taught him its resilience and the ability to bounce back. He has gone from a potential podium finisher to a rally winner in the making, and could be a dark horse for a rostrum finish on round six. Argentina didn't go to plan for Craig Breen. The Irishman had never competed on the event before, but gearbox woes damaged by a large compression sidelined him for much of the weekend. Portugal is an event Craig does have experience of though, and the Waterford driver has been ultra impressive since putting pen to paper in a deal to drive for Citroen Racing. Watch this space. "Ultra impressive" is not a phrase you would use to describe Hayden Paddon's season at the wheel of an i20 Coupe WRC. The New Zealander has yet to have a clean rally, with a day one roll and power steering issues bookmarking his torrid run in Argentina. He will have a different voice in his ears for Portugal, with Seb Marshall's debut alongside Paddon moving forward a few months due to an aggravated hip injury to John Kennard. The season has not gone at all to plan for Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle either. Despite a dramatic win in Mexico, the pair sit ninth in the championship over a third into the season. Monumental handling issues blighted their pace in both Monte-Carlo and Sweden, before a major turnaround to his C3 WRC seeing the British driver bag his fourth career win on an event he traditionally hasn't felt comfortable on. He continued his fine pace in Corsica before an oil leak, and then in Argentina he suffered two crashes: one down to the car and one down to the driver. The championship many thought was his for the taking pre-season is seemingly gone, but expect Meeke to bounce back in Portugal. The speed is most definitely there. The consistency and reliability is a work in progress. Make or break. Portugal is as crucial as that to Juho Hanninen. Toyota's number two has scored just 15 points, nearly six times less than his team mate, and achieved his best result when suffering from pneumonia. It seems harsh to use that Mexican result against the Finn as that was a very impressive drive, but with Esapekka Lappi making his debut with the team in Portugal and the increased speculation surrounding Andreas Mikkelsen, Juho needs to both prove he has the speed and get the car to the finish. Otherwise you really do have to worry about his future with the team. Mads Ostberg will start his third event of the year on the rally he won five years ago. The Norwegian has shown impressive speed on his return as a privateer entrant, so can't be discounted from bagging his first result of the year. Stephane Lefebvre returns to action and is another who needs a good result as he sits behind Andreas Mikkelsen in the championship despite doing twice as many rallies and having a far superior car under his feet. Khalid Al-Qassimi joins Citroen for his first event of the year too, with four Fiestas, four C3s, three Yaris' and three i20s taking the start. The WRC2 Championship is also set to be an absolute thriller next weekend. With this event counting as the first mandatory championship round, all the contenders are set to battle it out on some of the world's best gravel stages. M-Sport's entrants Eric Camilli and Teemu Suninen are in action but the battle everyone's eyes will be on will be between Skoda team mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Pontus Tidemand. The Scandinavian pair have won every single WRC2 rally so far in 2017. Despite Tidemand's impressive form, I'm tipping Mikkelsen for this one, while for the overall win I'm struggling to look beyond Kris Meeke. If this comes up, maybe I'll open a Sky Bet account... Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul took a dramatic second consecutive win of their season to underline their credentials as title contenders in the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship. The Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC driver was made to fight incredibly hard for it however, overhauling long-time leader Elfyn Evans in El Condor, the end of rally Power Stage, to take a maximum 30 points and Hyundai Motorsport's second Argentina victory by a mere 0.7 seconds.
Argentina, known to be the WRC's toughest and roughest rally, lived up to its reputation as early as the very first stage of the event, but young Welshman Elfyn Evans appeared to be completely immune to all the peril that befell the majority of his rivals, opening up a lead of just over a minute by mid-distance before seeing it whittled down stage by stage as he too began to hit problems. Two punctures, brake issues, engine troubles and a missing rear diffuser from his Fiesta pegged the British Rally Champion back and ate away the advantage he had engineered with the help of his DMACK rubber. This set up a thrilling final stage shoot-out, similar to that of last year between Hayden Paddon and Sebastien Ogier, involving Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville who had overcome issues on the opening leg to close to within 0.6 seconds of the British star. This time around however the underdog didn't come out on top as Evans, who was 3 seconds up in the splits, made a slight mistake negotiating one of El Condor's many narrow suspension bridges which ultimately lost him his first WRC win, to the jubilation of Neuville at the stop control who prevented Argentina from crowning a third debut winner in as many years. This result is of huge significance. As well as being one of the closest and most dramatic finishes in WRC history, it has proved that much like Ott Tanak, Elfyn Evans is a WRC winner in the waiting, not just a potential prospect for success. But perhaps more importantly for this incredibly exciting season, Thierry Neuville has made huge gains in the title race, closing within two points of Latvala and less than 30 behind Ogier. The Belgian bullet is now a serious contender for his maiden world championship. Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja completed the podium in Argentina to help M-Sport keep their lead in the constructors championship ahead of Hyundai Motorsport. The Estonian grabbed his third podium finish in the process, and despite not being able to match his DMACK-shod team mate, he was consistently quicker than stable mate Ogier. This was another mature and impressive performance from Tanak. It isn't often that Sebastien Ogier finishes as the last of a manufacturer's entered cars, but in South America this was the case as the champion's winless run in Argentina continues. The Frenchman never really looked comfortable behind the wheel and didn't really feature at all in the battle at the front, making two uncharacteristic errors on both Friday and Saturday to take his first non-podium finish of the year. As ever, Ogier did actually increase his championship lead after round five over second placed Jari-Matti Latvala, but the major gains Thierry Neuville has made will be of great concern to him. Jari-Matti was the man that slotted in behind Ogier on the Argentine leaderboard, bringing the Toyota Yaris he described as a "tank" home to record another solid points scoring finish. The Finn was running as high as second on Friday morning but the same overheating engine issues that blighted the Tommi Makinen built Yaris in Mexico re-appeared at the weekend, which saw him plummet down the order. Latvala is still having a good season, but we've yet to see the frightening pace we saw back in February in the frozen Swedish forests. Hayden Paddon's disappointing 2017 season continued on just the second stage of the rally when a slow speed roll cost him two and a half minutes. From then on the Kiwi struggled to find true front-running form and his deflation was evident at the end of El Condor when he commented on his win last year as a career high, and his current spell of form as a career low. Paddon is his own worst critic, but he badly needs a strong performance in Portugal. His Argentine adventure ended in power steering failure. You would've been forgiven for forgetting Juho Hanninen was even competing in Argentina. Apart from the live stages, I don't think the Finn featured at any point throughout WRC+'s TV coverage across the weekend, which means unlike in Monte-Carlo, Sweden and Corsica he didn't bin it, but he didn't do anything note-worthy either. Much like Mads Ostberg last season, Juho is feeling the wrath in my rally reviews, but with the amount of talent sitting on the sidelines Hanninen really needs to up his game, and soon. Esapekka Lappi makes his WRC debut for Toyota next time out in Portugal, and if he beats Hanninen it really could and probably should be curtains for Juho. Dani Sordo had a troubled weekend in the third of Hyundai's i20 Coupe World Rally Cars. A puncture on the final stage summed it up for the Spaniard. Mads Ostberg claimed ninth after running second at the end of Friday, taking advantage of his pre-event test in Argentina which the factory teams aren't allowed to do. However, he lost his centre diff in a water splash and then broke his suspension on a rock, but recovered under Rally2 to take ninth. Pontus Tidemand dominated WRC2 to take his third win of the year, taking victory by over 10 minutes in a Skoda Fabia R5 to take the final points scoring finish. It's been too often that I discuss Kris Meeke this far down in these pieces, but once again the Citroen star had a 'mare in Argentina. On the scene of his debut win two years ago where he emotionally dedicated the victory to his mentor Colin McRae, the Ulsterman put in the classic Colin McRae performance. A rut in the road sent his C3 WRC rolling into the undergrowth, which Citroen attributed to a set-up issue. He then suffered a huge 14-roll crash on Saturday and was lucky to escape unscathed, which is testament to the strength of modern rally cars. But for a man many touted as title favourite pre-season, he needs to find some consistency in his driving. Meeke's mentor Colin McRae was known as one of the best drivers in the world, but only won one title in 10 years. His raw speed and rally winning ability was without question, but his ability to reign it in, bag the points and play the long game wasn't exacly his strong point. It's looking like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Craig Breen capped off another bad weekend for Citroen as his gearbox broke on the same rut that sent Meeke off on Friday. Breen never got back out until Sunday which was a shame given the Irishman could have done with seat time on an event he had never done previously. I really do hope I am wrong about Kris Meeke, but he is most definitely out of this year's title race at the very least. 2017 is looking like a three way showdown between M-Sport's Ogier, Toyota's Latvala and Hyundai's Neuville, and I can't wait out to see how it all plays out with Ogier's clever nature and Neuville's unreal pace. Next stop: Portugal - the first European gravel round of the season. |
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January 2018
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