Hi, friends!
Five times World Rally Champion Seb Ogier doesn't have time to think about what to do or not. He has to push his car to the limits because the Championship will be gone soon. He still has some chances because Neuville had an off today and he is in 9th place, just behind his team mates Mikkelsen and Paddon. But the man of the rally is Estonian Ott Tanak who is leading with more then half a minute in front of Ogier.
Tanak smells the blood of his rivals and knows that his car is better and stronger at the moment so he will try to win his 4th win in the row in Wales and take the Championship lead in front of Neuville and Ogier.
I am pretty sure that Neuville's team mates from Hyundai Mikkelsen and Paddon will let their leading man in front of them because it is the battle to the wire. None of them should retire from this rally if they still want to be in the fight at the last two rounds of the 2018 WRC season in Catalunya and Australia.
Seb Ogier currently has the weaker machine in compare with the other two drivers but his experience really counts at the moment. He just posted the fastest time at the Special Stage 20 with 2s quicker then anybody else. I would say that Tanak has the commanding lead and he doesn't have to risk that much so he is not at the limit at the moment. If it will be fight with the seconds, I am sure that he will press the gas pedal 'down to the floor'.
I am also sure that all three drivers count on each other mistakes as it happened to Neuville already but Ogier needs both of them to make some kind of mistake to put him back into the championship in the better way.
Ogier's team mates Evans and Suninen are both out of the rally, Evans with engine problem and Suninen went off, so they can't help him in any way. I must admit that Evans was pretty bad this season if we compare he with the last season when he drove on DMACK tires.
Toyota's Finns Latvala and Lappi both has really good rally and they are both in fight for the 2nd place overall. It's really interesting that four drivers from 2nd to 5th place are in the 10s. That's what we want to see - interesting rallies and domination of the one driver and manufacturer. Nobody wants to watch that.
Results after special stage 10:
Tanak 2:01:37.2
Ogier +41.9
Latvala +47.4
Lappi +49.5
Breen +51.3
Enjoy some beer while watching the World Rally Championship! I would say that beer and WRC are the best combo for the weekend!
I found also very interesting onboard video from Suninen's car with the right camera angle behind the driver. Why it is that the right camera angle? Because you can learn the best watching what the driver does in every moment.
Credit to WRC.com and Youtube for photo and videos.
Please enjoy!
Comments