In January, Sebastien Ogier finished in Monte Carlo in the first position, and the last weekend in Wales finished the championship in 2015 victory in the last stage.
And there were the chances of rivals irrepressible Frenchman? Could someone stop him to put the winning point? After the failure of the previous two phases — first in France, Seb caught a puncture, and then fell on the road section of the broken transmission; in Spain, he came down on the last special stage because of their own mistakes — someone might have seemed that the pilot Volkswagen Motorsport have problems. But there it was — the British stage has shown that this is not a problem, just an unfortunate misunderstanding. Well, well — the two unfortunate misunderstanding.
As is known, this year introduced a new rule, according to which in the first two days of the rally leader of the standings the first left on the track. In most of the gravel stages of last season, it usually leads to additional difficulties for Sebastien Ogier (in fact, for that he also introduced).
But it seemed that the Frenchman in Wales is not suffering from a disadvantageous starting position!
On the first day the Frenchman won five of the six special stages — and could win all six, but after the embarrassment in Spain, he decided not to risk and in difficult moments just to slow down. Loss of time in relation to the winner of the special stage — it was Kris Meeke — was five seconds with a minor, but on the day Ogier still in the lead by a margin of 13.5 seconds. The point was made — if the first day of Sebastien managed to take the lead and create a gap, it will continue to present «Massacre of the Innocents.»
And so it was. The second day has passed without such an overwhelming advantage the reigning world champion — of the nine special stages he won «only» four, twice showed the second time, third once and fifth twice.
But even such a pace allowed the French to increase its lead by almost three times — up to 36 seconds! There was the final day, and only four special stages with a total length of 36 kilometers.... Thus, Sebastien could afford to lose nearest rival Chris Mick a little less than a second kilometer and still be a winner.
Ogier chose the slightly more aggressive approach — in Sunday's special stages he showed the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth time, while losing in relation to Mick only ten seconds. The Irishman, apparently aware that the risk is not worth mindlessly and run to the finish, keeping the position.
I do not risk, and finished the race third, Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian had mathematical chances to take in the championship in second place. However, for this he had to win and score points in the Power Stage. The problem is fantastic, and so is already coming on the second special stage at the third position, Andreas and kept it until the finish — he won only two victories in the SU.
In all of this, finishing second and third, and Mike Mikkelsen showed the best results for yourself on the British stage of WRC! That's it.
Perhaps they both could have been more aggressive, but their zeal is probably cooled the events happened with rivals.
Already on the second special stage — in some six hundred meters after the start of the special stage — the track flew Volkswagen Polo R WRC occupied second place Jari-Matti Latvala. Finn depicted something absolutely incredible — the braking before the turn left his car suddenly left to right, stalled, went over the parapet and plunged into a water-filled ditch. Get out on their own was impossible.
Next was the last special stage of the day for the first dopom Hyundai Motorsport racers Thierry Neuville and Kevin Abbring. The first cut the wheel studs and the second engine overheated. Returning to the race on the second day Neville rolled and then his car blocked the road, thus preventing the passage of the car Sebastien Ogier.
Another pilot Hyundai Hayden Peddon managed on Saturday to err on the road section and go the wrong way. Finding error New Zealander turned and ran in the opposite direction, but... collided head-on with the same slip for causing Martin Prokop! Hyundai was the stronger Ford — at the end of the incident Hayden continued the race, but Cech was forced to lay down their arms.
Not without trouble and the final day of the race. In one of the corners Ott Tyanaka car hit the rear left wheel, which led to damage and immediately Estonian crew.
And we talked only about the gatherings. But even opponents three leaders punctured wheel, they have a technical problem, they turn around, they flew off the road and returned with the loss of time... Everything and I do not remember. As you know, these events worked for the benefit of Ogier, Mick and Mikkelsen. At the end of the race the first three kept within 36.2 seconds — so Andreas lost Sebastien. But finished fourth Hyundai driver Dani Sordo lost to the winner of the race nearly three minutes!
By the way, the rate of the bosses of the Korean team played at 100 per cent, although at first it seemed a complete gamble. Stating in the factory instead of competition experienced Thierry Neuville «green» Hayden Peddon Koreans have managed to break the bank. If Neville twice went the distance and as a result the race is not finished, the New Zealander finished fifth just behind his teammate. In fact, Sordo and Peddon showed the best possible result!
Fifth place went to Elfin Evans left behind Mads Ostberg, Stephen Lefebvre, Robert Kubica and Lorenzo Bertelli.
Launched in the UK Lukyanyuk Alex was able to drive only one special stage. Catch up on dope launched earlier opponent from St. Petersburg «caught» a stone sink his Ford Fiesta R5. Crew Lukyanyuk / Chervonenko showed 10th time in competition RC2, but on the road section was forced to issue the gathering. On Saturday, Alex and Eugene did not return to the race...
And so it was. The second day has passed without such an overwhelming advantage the reigning world champion — of the nine special stages he won «only» four, twice showed the second time, third once and fifth twice.
But even such a pace allowed the French to increase its lead by almost three times — up to 36 seconds! There was the final day, and only four special stages with a total length of 36 kilometers.... Thus, Sebastien could afford to lose nearest rival Chris Mick a little less than a second kilometer and still be a winner.
Ogier chose the slightly more aggressive approach — in Sunday's special stages he showed the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth time, while losing in relation to Mick only ten seconds. The Irishman, apparently aware that the risk is not worth mindlessly and run to the finish, keeping the position.
I do not risk, and finished the race third, Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian had mathematical chances to take in the championship in second place. However, for this he had to win and score points in the Power Stage. The problem is fantastic, and so is already coming on the second special stage at the third position, Andreas and kept it until the finish — he won only two victories in the SU.
In all of this, finishing second and third, and Mike Mikkelsen showed the best results for yourself on the British stage of WRC! That's it.
Perhaps they both could have been more aggressive, but their zeal is probably cooled the events happened with rivals.
Already on the second special stage — in some six hundred meters after the start of the special stage — the track flew Volkswagen Polo R WRC occupied second place Jari-Matti Latvala. Finn depicted something absolutely incredible — the braking before the turn left his car suddenly left to right, stalled, went over the parapet and plunged into a water-filled ditch. Get out on their own was impossible.
Next was the last special stage of the day for the first dopom Hyundai Motorsport racers Thierry Neuville and Kevin Abbring. The first cut the wheel studs and the second engine overheated. Returning to the race on the second day Neville rolled and then his car blocked the road, thus preventing the passage of the car Sebastien Ogier.
Another pilot Hyundai Hayden Peddon managed on Saturday to err on the road section and go the wrong way. Finding error New Zealander turned and ran in the opposite direction, but... collided head-on with the same slip for causing Martin Prokop! Hyundai was the stronger Ford — at the end of the incident Hayden continued the race, but Cech was forced to lay down their arms.
Not without trouble and the final day of the race. In one of the corners Ott Tyanaka car hit the rear left wheel, which led to damage and immediately Estonian crew.
And we talked only about the gatherings. But even opponents three leaders punctured wheel, they have a technical problem, they turn around, they flew off the road and returned with the loss of time... Everything and I do not remember. As you know, these events worked for the benefit of Ogier, Mick and Mikkelsen. At the end of the race the first three kept within 36.2 seconds — so Andreas lost Sebastien. But finished fourth Hyundai driver Dani Sordo lost to the winner of the race nearly three minutes!
By the way, the rate of the bosses of the Korean team played at 100 per cent, although at first it seemed a complete gamble. Stating in the factory instead of competition experienced Thierry Neuville «green» Hayden Peddon Koreans have managed to break the bank. If Neville twice went the distance and as a result the race is not finished, the New Zealander finished fifth just behind his teammate. In fact, Sordo and Peddon showed the best possible result!
Fifth place went to Elfin Evans left behind Mads Ostberg, Stephen Lefebvre, Robert Kubica and Lorenzo Bertelli.
Launched in the UK Lukyanyuk Alex was able to drive only one special stage. Catch up on dope launched earlier opponent from St. Petersburg «caught» a stone sink his Ford Fiesta R5. Crew Lukyanyuk / Chervonenko showed 10th time in competition RC2, but on the road section was forced to issue the gathering. On Saturday, Alex and Eugene did not return to the race...
