Dimitris’ Driver Ratings - Rally Italia Sardegna
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. Admittedly Lappi did back off massively after seeing
Ogier’s stricken car but such was the pace that I don’t think Lappi could have
done much about it. Neuville didn’t score any power stage points though which
lowers his score, but it takes nothing away from his win and performance
I
think Sardegna was Lappi’s best performance in Hyundai colours. The Finn made
the most of his road position on Friday, ending the rally in the lead by a
miniscule 0.1 seconds. He lost the lead on the first stage of the next day only
to regain it on the next stage. He lost a lot of time to Ogier on the next two
stages of the loop though. He made gains on Ogier’s lead in the afternoon but
conceaded the provisional lead to his teammate after Ogier crashed. After that
he just cruised to the end having nothing to fight for.
Dani Sordo – 5/10 – DNF
Not
one of Sordo’s best Sardegna performances. The Spaniard rolled on the first
pass of Monte Lerno and lost over 4 minutes because of it. His rally was
essentially over from then on, he did well to recover back up to 5th
place, making the most of his road position on Saturday. Unfortunately he would
retire on Sunday from an exhaust failure
Toyota
I
think Kalle Rovanpera took as many points as he could have taken from Sardegna.
The championship leader took 20 points from the rally, winning the power stage
in the process, extending his championship lead to 25 points over Neuville.
Despite being first on the road on Day 1 he finished the day in 4th
after a mega stage on the 2nd pass of the Monte Lerno stage. After
that it was managing his rally until the end, benefiting from Ogier’s off to
get his 3rd podium of the season. He was also the only Yaris not to
suffer damage from a watersplash !
Elfyn Evans – 4.5/10 – 4th
Evans
had a very troublesome rally in Italy. The Welshman didn’t show any pace to
challenge for the podium, nevermind win. He damaged his Yaris in a watersplash
not once but twice, and lost time because of it. He finished 4th,
last of the Rally1s to finish in the top 10, 5 minutes off eventual winner
Neuville. With Safari next, it’s up to him to get his season back on track,
which got derailed after his big Portugal crash.
Sebastien Ogier – 5.5/10 – 14th
A
rare off cost Ogier the win in Sardegna. The Frenchman was on course for his 3rd
win of the season, in just his 4th outing this year, and he was
having a faultless but his chances at the win went out the window on Saturday
afternoon. Ogier suffered damage on the front of his car on SS12 and SS13 and
lost most of his lead. He then succumbed to the tricky conditions, with his
boot slipping off the brake pedal and he ended up in a ditch. He super rallied
on Sunday and got 4th in the power stage. What could have been…
Takamoto Katsuta – 3.5/10 – 40th
Takamoto was the first Toyota to succumb to the water splashes in
Italy. The Japanese driver was up to 5th when he approached a water
splash with way too much speed and damaged his radiator. That put him out for
the remainder of Saturday. Before that though Taka won stage 3 and was running
as high as 3rd. It’s a shame he couldn’t get a result in Sardegna,
but the Japanese driver only has 2 non super rally finishes this year in Monte
Carlo and Croatia. If he wants to retain his factory seat next season, he
really needs to find his consistency back.
M-Sport
Ott Tanak – 4.5/10 – 35th
This
was a nightmare weekend for M-Sport. The highest M-Sport car was Gregoire
Munster in 11th in the Rally2 ! Ott Tanak had a miserable weekend.
He never jelled with his Puma Rally1, having a lot of issues with the car, and his
road position didn’t help. He was a minute off Ogier heading to SS9. In SS9 he
drowned the car’s engine in a water crossing and that put him out of the rally.
He super rallied on Sunday and won 2 stages and got 2nd in the Power
Stage and the 4 points that come with it as consolation.
Pierre Louis Loubet – 7/10 – DNF
Pierre
Louis can’t catch a break ! The Frenchman was in 3rd when his gear
stick got stuck. He was saved from DNFing when the stage got red flagged, but
he was given a 3 minute penalty. It got worse for Loubet, as his steering
failed (?) (not quite sure on what failed but something definitely did) and
ended up in a ditch. He didn’t restart the rally because of extensive damage on
his Puma.
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