WRC Portugal: Day 2 standings and a boycott (SS8-SS13)

"Fred (FreddsterExprs)" (freddsterexprs)
04/05/2014 at 12:51 • Filed to: WRC Portugal, Rally

Day 2 of the Vodafone Rally Portugal promised close competition. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! narrowed down the podium contenders down to 5 drivers: Ogier as the remaining Volkswagen, WRC veteran Mikko Hirvonen and surprisingly returning driver Ott Tänak for Ford, Mads Östberg in his Citroen DS3 and newly third Hyundai team driver Dani Sordo.

Victims of slippery gravel stages and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were prominent: Latvala (which could be decisive in the championship as it takes the pressure of Ogier), Meeke, Mikkelsen and, of course, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

So let's jump ahead and see what happened between the world's best rally drivers in the beautiful hills of Portugal.

Stage 8 marked the beginning of the day, and Sebastien Ogier had the best possible start to the day by taking the win, although Hirvonen could keep up with the speed and only lost by 0.2 seconds. Tänak continued and also only finished 0.9 seconds behind Ogier, and Östberg in forth also only lost 1.1 seconds. Dani Sordo was the best Hyundai driver in fifth but couldn't quite match the pace.

What would Ogier do now? Would he play it safe and think about his second championship, or would he keep up the pressure, maybe trying to not lose his rhythm?

He did the later and took another stage win, once again ahead of Hirvonen by 8.7 seconds. For the first time (if you ignore the small SS1) Ott Tänak wasn't in the top 3, but Mads Östberg took place behind Hirvonen, while Ott still showed a strong result and put the Fiesta in forth. Hänninen also decided to remind the WRC fans worldwide that he is driving a brand new Hyundai and for the first time beat his teammates by setting the fifth fastest time.

While things were surprisingly calm and ordered until now, SS10 mixed things up a bit. I was really impressed with Tänaks comeback so far, but I wondered how much longer he could be pushing and keeping up with the big WRC guns. The inevitable happened, and he totally Kubica'd his car on the stage and blocked the road. All the following drivers had to wait until there was a way to pass him. Ogier was lucky enough to have started in front of him, but his main challenger at that point Hirvonen lost a lot of time and finished. After everyone crossed the finish line safely, the race organizers adjusted the times set to grant fair competition (force major), and Hirvonen therefore was only 2.4 seconds behind Ogier in total, and Citroen driver Östberg inherited third place. The stage itself was won by Latvala.

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3 stages were left for today, and to sum them up quickly: SS11 and 12 went to Ogier, SS13 was won by Latvala, and Hirvonen always was just behind the reigning champion. My guess is that the Finn doesn't want to risk everything and is trying to secure his first podium since his promising Ford comeback.

Oh, and guess what happened to Kubica?

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A non-sportive side note: all manufacturer teams (VW, M-Sport Ford, Citroen, Hyundai) are currently in a boycott against the series' media partners. The reason is simple: since the time they took over in 2013, nothing really improved. TV coverage is pretty much nonexistent, and the rest of the media work is still way behind considering that the WRC is a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP with 4 mainstream manufacturers and tons of unfiltered action. The current boycott was sparked when Red Bull Mediahouse (one of the promoting partners) demanded 300.000€ as a media production fee if the teams wanted to receive TV footage – a service that was free of charge before. The contract wasn't signed on Friday by all of the teams, and no top drivers is giving interviews as they boycott the official media. The next step the team official consider is not giving out onboard footage from the cars.

A sketchy situation in general, and definitely not healthy for both sides.

DISCUSSION (9)

Hoccy > Fred (FreddsterExprs)
04/05/2014 at 13:11

Really sad to see Tänak out of the podium fight, and possibly out of the rally. I guess it's part of the learning process for a young driver, the talent and speed is there right now.

Also some interesting tire tactics this afternoon, with Østberg and Solberg running all hard tires while other drivers either had soft tires or a mixed setup. The soft tires are considered faster, so the decisions made today will affect tomorrows stages. Especially on the power stage!

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Hoccy
04/05/2014 at 13:29

The soft was quicker, but it also showed quite a lot of wear according to Hirvonen. Going to be interesting, I hope that Hirvonen plans a major attack on Ogier.

Hoccy > Fred (FreddsterExprs)
04/05/2014 at 13:37

I hope so too, and if Hirvonen is able to push Ogier it's likely that either of them will encounter problems. If Hirvonen can close the gap to under 30 seconds, pretty much anything can happen.

Kookanoodles > Fred (FreddsterExprs)
04/05/2014 at 13:37

I hope we still get the daily updates and onboard videos from the WRC's official YouTube channel, at least. It's pretty much the only way to get video coverage of the rallies.

Hoccy > Kookanoodles
04/05/2014 at 16:23

There's a live stage tomorrow at 12:00 CET, look here to find a stream. Also, the daily review is aired on MotorsTV every day at 22:30 CET (in 7 minutes).

Dusty Ventures > Fred (FreddsterExprs)
04/05/2014 at 18:11

Kubica is improving. This is the first rally in a WRC car where he hasn't been on his roof.

Dusty Ventures > Hoccy
04/05/2014 at 18:12

I think Kookanoodles is referring to the media boycott that Freddster mentioned.

Dusty Ventures > Fred (FreddsterExprs)
04/05/2014 at 18:16

The teams have a point. There's been less media coverage since Red Bull took over (with the exception of the coverage of Rally France last year, but Red Bull had nothing to do with that). For RB to now expect 300,000€ to do what they were contracted to do in the first place is ridiculous.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Dusty Ventures
04/06/2014 at 04:58

They totally have a point. The promoter has got to throw the TV contracts out for free if they have to - there is nothing more important than having a good spot on national TV. And while I know that production of WRC TV Material is immensely expensive, it is necessary, no doubt about it.

I had the idea of fitting every car with with a sensor that is recognized by drones (you know, those 4 blade things people use for filming) so that the drone can automatically follow the vehicle through the whole stage and film it.