World Rally Championship WRC 2019

Panizzi showing off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3lycIaNMfc

Viladrau viaduct was run when the rally was based in LLoret del Mar. Now that its moved south to Salou Villdrau is consigned to the history books ( for now at least) We passed by Viladrau on this years Costa Brava.
The stage I was referring to is Riudecanyes - sometimes run as the power stage.

after stage 13, tanak, meeke, latvala, ogier, sodo, Mikkelsen, Neuville...

Tanak is different class this year. I wonder if Seb is regretting leaving Ford. I know theyve not done much at all this year but i would fancy Seb in a Ford to be ahead of the rest of the Toyotas rather than behind them - really not convinced the Citroen is a good car.

hard to know paul, but the current top 5 or 6 drivers each have ability to win a few rounds which keeps it interesting...i long for more marques in the series though...

excellent for toyota, for tommi, for tanak and for meeke.....

rough rally ahead, all the main players through thursdays stage ok at least...

Ogier picked his way through everyone else's problems to win and Lappi second.

yep both tanak and neuville suffering, meeke never really threatened podium but came home with a few points...great drive by mikkkelsen to move ahead of kris in rankings, top 3 in class of their own this year, interesting scrap to be best of the rest, but meeke has scored points on 9 from 11 rallies htis year which isnt bad going....

Rally GB next week. Kind of crept up on me with all that is going on so sadly wont be making it again. Weather at the moment a bit pants so will be interesting to see if it drys out in time for next weekend.

day 1 very good for kris up til last stage,,,,some chat about potential infringements at a chicane after end of one of the stages....i seem to rem meeke getting penalised a while back for same thing....

so no action taken by stewards against those drivers who were able to carry more speed throught the finish due to poor direction markings on hay-bales...hhmmm

great drives by tanak, ogier and neuville, another solid team points gain by meeke too,,,,

hyundai bringing in loeb and sordo for spain, breen and mikelsen "rested"

Cataluyna underway after a really wet run up to the rally. Ogier already lost 3 minutes with power steering issues. Advantage Tanak in the title race?

agreed chris, should be an interesting final day, neuville may hold on for win, but tanak may nick good points, add the power stage and could be a major teller in title ...

Fair play to Tanak, he has been outstanding all season, a worthy champion and it wouldn't surprise me to see him take the next couple of titles too if has a car equal to the job. I do think Makinen will need to look for 2 drivers for next season though, Meeke and Latvala haven't the ability to lead a team, and they don't have the ability to be second drivers, IMO they have their story told and its high time they were moved on. The effect of seat blocking by them, Mikkelsen and perhaps even Loeb now is that the youth who should have been coming through aren't ready and the sport will be the poorer for it.

With Tanak leaving and poor perforamnces from Meeke(yea I know he is fourth in the champrionship but the binned it so many times needlessly) and Latvala way down perhap an opportunity for Breen might develop at Citroen again as news is saying Ogier could go to Toyota.

a bit harsh on meeke if youre talking this seaon only, spain wont have helped his cause of course, hes now 6th, but only 4 point separate 4th-6th. the table shows points won on 10 out of 13 events in 2019 so not a bad year, maybe just a tad disappointing....tanak well deserving of championship and is a class act, but i dont believe neuville and ogier are uncatchable given the right machinery, discipined driving and a bit of luck.......latest rumours are tanaks heading back to hyundai though so who knows...

Id be amazed if Tanak leaves Toyota, he could only move for money, and I'd find this disappointing.


Meeke at the moment has by my counting 37,26% of the total of his team mate Tanak
Latvala has 35.74%, this IMO is a reflection of how poor they have been, championship placing flatter as a number of drivers have been poor this year

Autosport saying Tanak has signed with Hyundai. Makinen saying nothing!

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/146766/tanak-to-leave-toyota-for-hyundai
https://drivetribe.com/p/ott-tanak-announces-shock-departure-Ua5z_MDaQ1iSg73xbdeQ_A?iid=SC-n-0hlR6mZw1v-iMNbgw

if, as rumoured, ogier might end his career in 2020 in toyota, would meeke and jml be happy to play second fiddle? and whay about young rovanpera?
re meekes place in table, i dont think one can use other peoples failings to negate the performance or position of meeke over a season, just like in football, i dont think the table lies at the end of the c'ship...i believe its fair to say meeke is in a bunch of three or four drivers, who are currently second-best to tanak, ogier and neuville, nothing more, but certainly nothing less..otherwise by the same reasoning and logic, you could say that the only reason tanak won is due to failings of ogier, neuville, meeke, etc etc ...just a thought lol!!

Well done Tanak - fully deserved it and great to see a new World Champion! Hyundai in the driving seat for the Manufacturers which the team manager has said is all that he has been interested in all season, although i am sure Toyota must be gritting their teeth after Meeke unfortunately binned it. Some class acts as well that Tanak's beaten. I wonder if Ogier is regretting moving from Ford - if he can't get the Citroen (or is that a Sh!troen?) to sing, it must be a dog of a car. Class also to see Ogier's comments saying Tanak fully deserved it, and Wilson and the M-Sport crew stopping Tanak on his way back to the service to be first to congratulate him on his title. On which note..... some of you may recall that I was going to pop my "live Rally" cherry this year at the Rallye Catalunya - a wonderful pressie from my missus for my 50th. Given how long i've followed rallying I am embarassed by how much of an armchair anorak I am, but a great way to break the duck. We went with Rally Travel and took the hire car option as we had grand plans to give my long suffering wife a break from the chore (for her) of early starts and lots of road miles between stages with a planned detour to Barcelona. Unfortunately, the independance protests (350,000 people for independance in Barca on Saturday, 80,000 against it on Sunday) and regular outbreaks of violence put paid to that, so she had to make do with reading a kindle in the sunshine on the stages. Fortunately the weather was kind to us - 22c by midday albeit a bit fresh first thing in the mornings. As Barca was out of scope, we did the full bifta and took the Rally Travel teams advice on which stages to go to and which viewing points they recommended - all of which worked out really well with one exception where we were time pressed to get to one stage and needed an easy exit to make it to the service park straight afterwards as my wife had also treated me with passes to the M-Sport hospitality set up (bless her) so whilst we had a decent view and could see about 500m+ of the course , it was a long way away. On the subject of service parks, it really does put in to perspective the achievements of M-Sport in 2017/2018. You look at their slick operation (all looks very professional) and then you compare to what look like permanent multi storey service bays that Toyota, Citroen and Hyundai have set up and you realise just how much of a (relative) budget deficit M-Sport must be contending with - so in that respect they are punching way above their weight. Overall, couldn't fault the whole package (hotel was a bit rudimental so we ate out in the evenings) but perhaps the highlight for me was getting up close and personal to the historic rally cars which were running. I am even more envious of JOB's life having had just a brief taster of what must be pretty common place for him. Took loads of vids and pics, but just a selection to wet the appetite here. Already warned the wife that Wales Rally GB ("if you think i'm standing out on a cold/wet Welsh hillside in November, you have another thing coming"), Sweden ("I'll stay in the warm in the hotel whilst you make snowmen") and Finland (I have a fighting chance of convincing her to go to that one if i'm extra nice) are on the bucket list before i croak.

hi paul, absolutely brill pix m8!! like you my first non irish wrc event was catalunya in 2014 and it looked identical to your pix, brings back great memories...plus like you i was so chuffed to get close to the historics, with the added bonus of meeting our very own james at the start of one of the stages...brilliant times, well done m8! and like you i would love to do finland, but really is no excuse for missing rally wales gb so itl prob be first...