Rally Finland is done and as predicted in my previous blog entry on the WRC, Ogier didn't win this round. I hasten to mention that my prediction that VW wouldn't win either was in fact wrong, the winning car being the Polo of one J-M Latvala. However, my point remains - while last year Ogier had no real competition for first place in the championship, this year he does. Latvala's drive was brilliant, practically flawless and utterly competitive, the Finn winning more than 50% of all special stages. Jari-Matti is back!
There were some other welcome developments in Finland, not least the return to the podium of Citroen and Brit Kris Meeke. The Irishman drove an event which was a mix of great pace and mature decision-making and his third place finish was totally deserved.
And Ogier again proved his pace with a number of stage wins and second places culminating is his well-earned second podium spot. So he's still a good number of points ahead in the driver's competition and whomever topples him from top spot will have had a tough task. But it's a task that is eminently do-able even with Ogier's legendary luck in play.
This wouldn't be my blog if I didn't mention the Polish contingent, and while Kubica drove calmly and well for a large part of the event, he crashed out yet again. It's a good thing he's self-funding via his Lotos sponsorship because M-Sport's Malcolm Wilson must surely be rolling his eyes and slowly shaking his head by now.
The new boys on the block, Hyundai, had some good fortune and some not-so-good in Finland. Lead driver Neuville made a small mistake on stage 5, clipping the scenery with the tail of his i20. He completed the morning stages, albeit with no aero assistance but on his return to service, the scrutineers determined that the rollcage was damaged and the team were unable to affect repairs, so the Belgian retired from the event.
Local boy Juho Hanninen made a small error which resulted in his i20 slow rolling on stage 6. Spectators leapt to the rescue and Hanninen was able to continue with just a broken screen and a few unsightly dents to show for his mistake. He completed the rally in sixth place after a head-to-head battle with his teammate Hayden Paddon for the position.
And while we're on the subject of Paddon, he began cautiously but after getting a few high speed racing kms under his belt, he was finding his mojo, scoring times that rivalled those of both his Hyundai teammates. So it was a rather disappointing turn of events that in the first km of the first stage of the rally's final day, he lost his power steering and was unable to repair it during the remainder of the day's action.
At the time, Hayden was in a very comfortable 6th place, some half a minute ahead of Hanninen and in position to score his best ever finish in a WRC car on a WRC event. But the Kiwi was stoic about the problem, taking it on the chin and feeling upbeat about his performance up to that point. Hyundai team boss Nandan was complimentary about the NZer's growing speed and skill. It was a decent 8th place result from what Paddon regards as one of his best drives ever.
The superb running of Rally Finland proved to those who weren't pushing their own agendas that there's nothing wrong with the current format, and the WRC promoter's WRC+ web experience is a promising development in making more of the event online. And there's more to come. Let's hope that this is a watershed moment where the lunatic suggestions of compulsory tyre changes and last stage shootouts are put to bed permanently.
It's rallying, and Finland's how we rally fans like it.
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