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...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WRCArticles covering the World Rally Championship Archives
January 2018
Categories |