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Serderidis makes nombre look good... the guy is a disgrace.
He is a rich guy having fun, Wilson earns some money and that`s that.
I like see those gentlemen drivers with great cars, good liveries... Rally is that too.
The route is quite renewed for this year, only the Sherwood stage is exactly the same as last year. Although, no stage is completely new, every stage has something that has been driven before and only one stage (reversed from 2014) has no roads from last year's rally.
Google Earth map Australia ➡️ http://bit.ly/2J33lJf
If anyone is following Rally Australia this year and has a spare seat in their car please let me know - obviously happy to share costs. Lets hope the championship goes down to the wire!
Any confirmation about the theory that Sordo is also going to Australia (so Hyundai with 4 cars?).
I actually liked the explanation that they will not nominate Neuville for manu points so that he can concentrate on driver title and instead nominate the 3 others.
Interesting. Wonder, if Toyota would bring Meeke in that case. Been pretty good there.
When does the entry list for this close? Or has it closed already?
It’s in FIA’s hands now. It’s not the first time this year the entry list is late (or then it has come from FIA but they are lazy to put it online)
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Doesn't make much sense to me? I get the idea but it won'treally change the pressure on him, and if they think he can win then they want manufacturer points from the win too... would be an awkward situation if there is a conflict of interest between his DC points vs the others MC points, would they use team orders to favour one or the other?
Adding 4th car gives them more options to play with points for both championships. Although I think that manu title is now just about won by Toyota.
I also guess they have to nominate for manu points long before the rally (possibly already when entering the crew?).
Anyway these kinds of last-rally title fights very often end with one or more of the fighting crews crashing out. (lately Hirvonen and Loeb who both ended DNF, McRae and Burns etc..).
It is also possible that say Ogier drops out for some reason and even win won't be enough for Tanak so Neuville will cruise on some 4-6th place without risk (like he did to keep 2nd in 2016). I does indeed sometimes happen that multiple contenders finish, but it's rather rare compared to the number of times one or both crash (Solberg vs Loeb 2003).
Škoda has just released a press information confirming that Jan Kopecký and Pavel Dresler are WRC2 champions which must mean that Pontus Tidemand didn't use his theoretical option to brake the contract and go into Australia on his own (not saying he wanted to do that but Škoda was obviously waiting for closing the entries with this announcement).
So it was wrong rumor (think it actually originated from the organizers though).
Maybe the organizers just didn't know which of the Hyundai drivers would do the event :D
They fixed the post :)
Is the second page of the entry list still coming or is that all there is? ;)
Can go really crazy but some easy to calculate and realistic outcomes of Rally Australia:
Ogier 1st - Ogier CHAMP
Ogier at least 3rd and ahead of Neuville - Ogier CHAMP
Neuville 1st & Ogier 2nd - Neuville at least 4th on PS w/ Ogier 1st on PS - Neuville CHAMP
Neuville 2nd & Ogier 3rd / Neuville 3rd & Ogier 4th - whoever finishes ahead on PS (in point scoring position) is CHAMP
Tanak 1st + 1st on PS - Neuville 2nd on PS + not higher than 7th - Ogier 2nd on PS + not higher than 9th - Tanak CHAMP
For the championship contenders it seems that the only way to approach the rally is to go flat out. The PS can be a real thriller if the Toyotas are in the mix for the top position and Ogier is right behind Neuville.
Yeah, just looked at the schedule, not much sleep for us living in Europe.
Ogier was really far back last year from first on the road, but obviously motivation wasn't really on the top. Think it's very likely that one of the top 3 does some mistake. I mean at various points it will likely be "push or loose" for just about every single one of them.
it will be a thriller indeed, i really hope it goes all the way until the power stage, but if one of them retires already on the first day then the excitement is over already unfortunately.
Tänaks chances are only mathematical, he basically needs Neuville and Ogier to have rally2....even if it is so like you say, that he is winning and taking max PS points and Neuville is 7th and Ogier 9th at that moment, then they will have their teammates in front of them and they will let them pass and it isnt enough for Ott.
cant wait, luckily only some weeks left.
Fingers crossed! It is now or never for Neuville I think.
SebO for the driver title, Toyota for the manufacturer..
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Only 29 entrants with ASN drivers?! This rally should be out of calendar...
A bit sad yes, especially considering this years tight battle, very easy to get good points. Probably wouldn`t change anything this year, but if the keep doing those events far away with easy points available for slow, rally2 and WRC2 drivers, they should do it like they do in JWRC, more points.
Sweeping will be huge disadvantage for Ogier. I know Nueville was a little upset and wanted to have maybe a 1-2 point +/- going into Australia.
Wasn't Ogier sweeping last year and had an off? Australia day one can be nasty and it has been super dry this year. We've had no rain and drought problems in NSW. The roads will be dry soft and dusty if it continues this way...
Last year Ogier had a gear shift issue on Friday and lost about 20 seconds to Neuville. But on two stages he didn't have the issue and was actually faster than Neuville. Meanwhile, Mikkelsen was blowing everyone out of the water with a good starting position. So I wouldn't say being second on the road is such a great advantage to being first on the road, but further back you get far more grip. I would say it will be another Tänak showdown from the first stage.
I was looking at the manu points and MSPORT really has only theoretical chance, basically they need win +2-3 place and Toyota best 4th with two other cars completely out (no SR). Hyundai has some chance but still needs that 2 of 3 Toyotas drop to 7+ position if one stays near podium.
For drivers I think Neuville has a good chance to finish ahead of Ogier, but whether that's enough depends on the other drivers and PS. Tänak, Latvala, Mikkelsen and maybe Paddon can all mix in there.
Tänak needs to win and basically that both Ogier and Neuville crash, cause if they don't their teammates can let them go high enough up.
Route preview: https://itgetsfasternow.wordpress.co...ustralia-2018/
A lot of new stage titles, reversing and modification but none of the stages are totally new. Just like Rally Finland. And similarly, only one stage is run similarly as last year, which is a particularly fast stage which contains the only forest stage chicane. Just like Rally Finland...
If they will arrive at PS with 3 points difference at standings (e.g. Neuville 2nd O/A and Ogier 3rd O/A) everything will be decided at the PS and who will arrive ahead will win the championship. This will be a very interesting and emotional scenario
Yes yes but our road conditions are very very different this year due to the worst drought we've had in years... We will see how this all plays out.
WRCWings review of how the teams arrive to Australia based on the chassis jokers spent on aerodynamics
https://wrcwings.wordpress.com/2018/...lly-australia/