RALLY ESSENTIALS
Day one: 100.13 miles; 7 stages
Weather: sunny/rain 24-33 celsius
End of day one: 1 Lappi/ferm 1h59m53.7s; 2 Ogier/ingrassia +17.7s; 3 Neuville/gilsoul +18.4s; 4 Suninen/lehtinen +44.4s; 5 Mikkelsen/jaeger +1m04.1s; 6 Sordo/del Barrio +1m25.2s.
Day two: 68.41 miles; 6 stages
Weather: sunny 23-33 celsius
End of day two: 1 Ogier/ingrassia 3h20m12.0s; 2 Lappi/ferm +0.2s; 3 Mikkelsen/jaeger +1m17.1s; 4 Suninen/lehtinen +1m26.9s; 5 Sordo/del Barrio +2m24.7s; 6 Latvala/anttila +3m14.4s
Day three: 23.99 miles; 4 stages
Weather: sunny 26-35 celsius
There had definitely been better moments to share a cup of coffee with Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo. Saturday morning. Oh. Dear. The Italian was furious with Thierry Neuville. The merest suggestion that he might like to shuffle Andreas Mikkelsen or Dani Sordo in favour of the Belgian’s title tilt (and at a cost to the team’s own manufacturer aspirations) didn’t help.
“Never,” he said. “I never even thought of this. Since [the season launch in] Birmingham, I told you the priority is manufacturers’. That doesn’t change. And won’t change.”
For the first time since Sardinia, Hyundai extended its advantage over Toyota in the makes’ race. Thirdplaced Mikkelsen felt the i20 was generally racier when there was more grip beneath it (aren’t most rally cars?) while Sordo was a solid fifth.
M-sport endured one final event without number one driver Elfyn Evans, who will return for his home round next time out in Wales. Teemu Suninen looked comfortable and impressive while engaged in a battle for the final podium position, but lost out when he lost the rear diffuser and destabilised the rear of the Fiesta on the final morning (having destabilised the front when he lost the splitter on Saturday afternoon). The British squad lost ground to Citroen in the race for third place in the manufacturers’ standings – it’s hard to compete with a C3 one-two…
The good news for M-sport in Turkey was Gus Greensmith’s top-10 finish in the Fiesta R5 MKII. There’s plenty riding on this car for the boys and girls of Dovenby Hall and, after a couple of tricky outings with Eric Camilli in Finland and Germany, there was significant relief when the car arrived at the finish untroubled and at the front of the WRC 2 Pro pack.
Ahead of the event there was much talk of the step Toyota had made with the Yaris WRC after a fairly shoddy Turkish outing 12 months ago.
There was some fancy new suspension bits and the odd extra tickle here and there to the three cars. But, honestly speaking, the Finns brought the slowest of the four factory World Rally Cars for the second year running.
The car’s inability to deliver precision, grip, traction and confidence when it was jacked up higher than at any time before in the season was a real problem. The car might have made it over the rocks, but corners were something of an adventure from time to time – witness the #5 car snapping and spitting
Kris Meeke into a ditch on a nothing left-hander.
Ott Tanak’s disaster is documented elsewhere on these pages, but what impressed was the way
Jari-matti Latvala and Meeke accepted their fate and got on with driving the cars to the finish.
The pair were also pretty clear on their powerstage strategy, as they kept out of the way of a charging Tanak, sacrificing their own bid for bonus points to clear the way for the Estonian, while also staying risk-free to bring team points home too.
The Yaris has made a step from last season, but – as was the case last time out – the Citroen was in a different league. Good for the French, bad for the Finns.