Anybody else still trying to come to terms with what happened last weekend?
The first ever iteration of Central European Rally was challenging to say the least, with the anticipated (but highly feared) showers making the stages slippier than potentially even Monte Carlo!
Ultimately they caught out World Rally Championship title challenger Elfyn Evans, which neatly paved the path clear for Kalle Rovanperä to clinch his second title in as many seasons.
WRC2 was decided too, with a powerstage push from Andreas Mikkelsen ensuring he recovered the title he lost in 2021.
But they were far from the only storylines and takeaways from the weekend. Here’s what we learned from Central European Rally 2023:
Rovanperä’s a shrewd championship thinker
Rovanperä’s persona is one of a laidback driver who is capable of simply ridiculous things in a rally car, but one who will always give it his all to win.
Like any WRC driver, winning rallies is of course what motivates the now two-time world champion of the top level. But last weekend he proved beyond doubt where his real focus lies: the championship. Given the choice between the two, the Finn’s decision to settle for second place on CER clearly demonstrates which matters more.
After Friday the thought of Rovanperä not winning the rally would’ve seemed ridiculous. He was over half a minute clear of the rest and more than capable of defending it. But then he flirted with disaster as he locked the brakes and skated towards the trees; doing extremely well to find a clearing to spin his Toyota around in.
Suddenly his lead was less secure, and with title rival Elfyn Evans two spots behind him he didn’t need to win. Then Evans stacked it into a barn, and everything changed from Rovanperä.
Immediately he lost the lead, and never appeared remotely interested in reclaiming it. There were some who even wondered if he’d be tempted by a powerstage push to seal the title in style, but again Rovanperä stayed firm and clocked the slowest time of the Rally1 drivers without problems.
He did what he needed to do – nothing more, nothing less. Rovanperä was Ogier-esque in his execution and absolute focus on the bigger goal, and that’s an area of his game that’s perhaps underappreciated, or not fully realized.
Shout-out to that choreographed celebration at the end, too. Last year was a little bit of improvised dancing, this year was a cleverly rehearsed routine. I personally can’t wait to see what else they have in their locker should they win again in 2024, which would appear very likely based on current form.
Loubet needs his upcoming break
Pierre-Louis Loubet is right to feel his season has been unlucky. A lot of the time, circumstances have conspired against him – remember Acropolis Rally Greece, when he couldn’t even start a gravel stage all weekend? And then again last weekend where he lost the transmission which forced him to crawl to the end of the rally.
But there have been a few daft mistakes involved too, and unfortunately in CER he made another by braking too late and clouting a bank late on Friday which necessitated a wheel change.
And then there was the fine and one-minute time penalty for not having his helmet fastened correctly. Easy to do in the heat of the moment, but it typified the vibe of Loubet’s 2023. Never quite perfectly executed.
There are positives to take from CER as Loubet made it to the end of an event without using super-rally for the first time since Estonia four rallies ago, but it’s clear his impending break is well-timed.
He recognized it himself: he needs to reset his mind and start from a clean slate again next year. Because it’s clear, given his prowess last year and his 2019 WRC2 championship title, he is a lot better than 2023 made him look.
Lappi’s lackluster run continues
Speaking of drivers who are out of form, what about Esapekka Lappi? Those extreme highs of three podiums in a row and thoughts of a second WRC win feel a depressingly long time ago now for the Finn.
For the second rally in a row (and third event in the last four), a Friday morning shunt ended Lappi’s weekend prematurely. His last good result in the WRC was in July.
CER was a bizarre one too, as he was performing extremely well beforehand. A jump-start on Thursday’s opening stage aside, Lappi bucked the trend of drivers losing time the further back in the running order they were.
He was the only one in the same postcode as Rovanperä on the opening morning before it all went wrong. Was he pushing too hard? Who knows, but it’s clear that the Finn is in need of a hard reset too.
Japan’s an all-new event for him, and one he needs to finish without incident.
Ogier’s a different driver with no championship to chase
As he turned up when he pleased and still was managing to win rallies, at the top of this season, everyone was asking the same question: would Sébastien Ogier still be world champion if he was competing full-time?
That tempted plenty to ask the man himself whether he’d consider a full-scale comeback, but Ogier was having none of it.
CER was perhaps the clearest proof we’ve seen since the start of 2022 of how different a driver Ogier is with no championship to chase though.
No competitor would be pleased given Ogier’s hand on Friday morning – a flat tire ruined any hope of a good result in CER. But the Ogier of old (i.e. the one that was fighting for, and winning, championships) would’ve had the hammer down desperate to claw anything he could from the weekend.
Instead, Ogier – who was also feeling under the weather – was demotivated, and even considered driving back to service and parking it. In his part-time status, the only thing that interests him is a win, and with the win out of the question Ogier felt he had nothing to gain.
Ironically he actually produced a very good comeback drive, collecting fourth overall with just a 15.8-second deficit to the podium.
Fourmaux is fully ready for his Rally1 chance
From one Frenchman to another, and a driver who had a much more positive weekend: Adrien Fourmaux.
It’s a well-used script now that Fourmaux’s 2023 turnaround has been impressive, but what he managed at CER was arguably the pick of the performances to-date.
The M-Sport driver’s fightback was straight out of the Andreas Mikkelsen playbook, carving through the field from nowhere to seal an unlikely victory. A deflation on Friday morning had Fourmaux all the way down in 15th in class, yet he ended up winning by 17.3s.
Once again Fourmaux was everything he wasn’t in 2022, calculated and composed. The step back up to Rally1 for Rally Japan always felt well deserved, but now it feels almost necessary given how well he has executed his job this season in Rally2.
CER challenging, but concept raises questions
Stage conditions compared to Monte Carlo but awkward administrative issues leading to police invalidating insurance for some Rally2 competitors, and complaints about tedious liaisons meant the Central European Rally’s first appearace in the world championship is perhaps best described as a mixed bag.
Beginning with the positives, CER certainly delivered in terms of a challenge. As promised, each day was different in character and the inclement weather made the already demanding stages incredibly difficult.
You need only look at the chaos in WRC2 as an example of how difficult it was – and that’s what we want from a WRC round. We want the world’s best to be tested. And the concept of three different countries clubbing together to host a round of the championship is fantastic.
But there were undeniably teething issues, which are naturally common for new rallies – just ask the Rally Japan organizer. There are certainly some high-profile figures who feel there was room for improvement.
With CER’s slot in the calendar next year confirmed, the organizer will already be working through what it discovered first time around in order to finesse the rally for 2024. A more condensed route would appear to be top of the priority list.
