Powerslide Blog

  I have to admit, this post will come as a shock to people that know me, as I have been an outspoken critic of Rally Estonia, admittedly most of the time to annoy my Estonian colleagues. But when the news broke earlier this year that Rally Estonia will be replaced by Liepaja in 2024, I honestly felt sad. In my very naïve mind, Estonia would be replaced by a big classic or a fan favorite like New Zealand, Argentina or Ireland, and I dismissed Estonia as nothing more but a watered-down version of Finland. What I hadn’t realized is that the WRC is shifting its focus from its old “core” of rallies and transitioning with a new one for the 2020s. And without a doubt for me, Rally Estonia has been an addition to the WRC calendar that ticks all the boxes of being an important event in the calendar. Ott Tanak’s rise into WRC superstardom has made rallying and motorsport in general one of the biggest sports in the country, if not the biggest. Tanak’s success on the stages has paved the way

  Dimitris’ Driver Ratings Rally Italia Sardegna Round 6 of the World Rally Championship gave us the most drama filled rally of the season so far with only 4 Rally1s in the Top 10 and torrential rain in all the 3 days of action making the conditions incredibly difficult for all the crews. But who prospered and who faltered in Sardegna ? Let’s find out with the inaugural Powerslide Driver Ratings ! All of the photos are from the Red Bull Content Pool   Hyundai Thierry Neuville – 8.5/10 – 1st Thierry Neuville got his first win of the season in Sardegna. He had an OK Friday, struggling on hard tyres on the first pass of the massive 50km Monte Lerno test, and losing 25s to Sebastien Ogier. His performance on Saturday afternoon is what won him the rally though. After Ogier damaged his car (twice) in watersplashes, the gap between the top 3 was 7.4s. Neuville threw caution outside the window on stage 14 and built himself a 23.8s advantage over teammate Esapekka Lappi. Adm