Last month’s Rally Poland was the seventh event of a 13-round World Rally Championship season.
What does that mean? It’s time for the half-term WRC report! Who’s been top of the class? Who’s got some catching up to do? Who’s worked best with their classmates?
David Evans is your examiner:
Hyundai
Thierry Neuville: B-
Championship position: 1st | Rallies started: 7 | Wins: 1 | Stage wins: 37
Started the season with a brilliant win in Monte Carlo and that success in the French Alps remains the highlight of the year to date. There was a suspicion that Thierry might not have been playing fair in Sweden, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt there. There was a chaotic visit to Kenya followed by an off in Croatia where he was in the thick of the fight for a win and another in Sardinia where he wasn’t.
Leading the championship has forced him first on the road on recent gravel rallies, a position he hasn’t felt entirely comfortable with. Undoubtedly, Neuville – and his team-mate Ott Tänak – have been the kings of Super Sunday.
Lose the mistakes, tidy everything up in the second half and the title should be his.
Ott Tänak: C
Championship position: 3rd | Rallies started: 7 | Wins: 1 | Stage wins: 17
Messy start to the year with mistakes in Monte and Sweden, then bounced off a rock and into a bank in Kenya. Couldn’t find any comfort or confidence with the car in Croatia, but when the dirt arrived things started to look up.
Portugal was an improvement, but Tänak himself was guarded on the performance. A Sardinia win looked to be the turning point for his season, only for bad luck to return when he collided with a deer on the first stage proper in Poland.
The Estonian might be 21 points behind championship-leading team-mate Neuville, but he has more than enough speed to play himself back into the fight for a second title. The next two events are crucial in that regard.
Dani Sordo: C-
Championship position: 9th | Rallies started: 2 | Wins: 0 | Stage wins: 3
Two starts with Sardinia definitely better than Portugal. The Spaniard never looked capable of making it three wins on the Italian island, but always looked as dependable as ever for landing more valuable points for the team.
Is this the end of the road for one of the most likeable drivers in the service park? Possibly, but he remains a safe pair of hands on most rounds of the championship.
Andreas Mikkelsen: C-
Championship position: 8th | Rallies started: 3 | Wins: 0 | Stage wins: 3
Really not comfortable on the asphalt and, by his own admission, wasn’t really sure what he was doing there. Soon as he got to the gravel, it was a different story.
The Norwegian made the most of a great place on the road and looked well capable of another Polish win on the most recent round. His hopes of a win were dashed by a puncture, but the pace was there in a performance Mikkelsen needed to remind the world what he’s capable of.
Esapekka Lappi: B+
Championship position: 10th | Rallies started: 2 | Wins: 1 | Stage wins: 4
Outstanding win in Sweden was followed by more of the same on Safari as his transmission woes from last year followed him back to Kenya for this season.
Rejuvenated from spending more time at home with his family, the Finn could – and should – be a real force to be reckoned with, starting with Latvia later this month.
Toyota
Elfyn Evans: C-
Championship position: 2nd | Rallies started: 7 | Wins: 0 | Stage wins: 11
Start of the season was looking good, but instead of taking off and carrying the fight to Neuville, Evans has looked nervous and reluctant to take the final risk – an aspect of his season which has been underlined by a hesitancy to engage fully with the Super Sunday concept.
At some point he really needs to open his shoulders, relax and rely on the talent which has taken him to second in the title race three times already.
Takamoto Katsuta: D
Championship position: 7th | Rallies started: 7 | Wins: 0 | Stage wins: 7
A brilliant second on the Safari has been the highlight of a first half which has failed to inspire. The cheerful Japanese has totally demonstrated he’s worthy of his full-time seat in the Toyota team, but he now needs to deliver more consistent speed and potentially a podium-topping drive.
Nobody knows – or wants that – more than him.
Sébastien Ogier: A-
Championship position: 4th | Rallies started: 4 | Wins: 2 | Stage wins: 22
Top of the class? Hard to argue with that. The Frenchman’s imperious part-time campaign was only derailed by a road accident on Poland recce, which ruled him out of the last round. Otherwise, he’s been first or second on every rally he started.
He benefitted from start order in Portugal and Sardinia, but he’d earned that break after years of sweeping the line clean for the best of the rest – and definitely deserved a victory on the Italian island which was only lost due to a tire being knocked off the rim.
Kalle Rovanperä: B
Championship position: 6th | Rallies started: 4 | Wins: 2 | Stage wins: 23
Was he slightly distracted by his much talked about extra-curricular activities? Certainly mistakes in Sweden and Portugal were far from the Rovanperä MO which helped him romp to back-to-back titles in the last two years.
An unexpected entry in Poland offered the opportunity for the 23-year-old to demonstrate why he’s right up there with the very best of the best: minimal preparation time and a far-from-perfect recce meant a slightly more reserved debut drive in the Masurian Lakes.
It was still enough to win. Class. More of the same in Latvia and Finland? Quite possibly.
M-Sport Ford
Adrien Fourmaux: B+
Championship position: 5th | Rallies started: 7 | Wins: 0 | Stage wins: 5
After spending a while in detention, the Frenchman demonstrated he’d moved on from the impetuous moments which marked his 2022 debut at the highest level. This has been an exceptional start to Fourmaux’s first year as a team leader.
Five top five finishes, of which three have been podiums, demonstrate the consistency he’s found to match the speed we all knew he had. Can he win in the second half of the year? Why not.
He’s probably still lacking the ultimate pace required to challenge the big three, but if they hit trouble, the M-Sport man’s right there to capitalize.
Grégoire Munster: C
Championship position: 11th | Rallies started: 7 | Wins: 0 | Stage wins: 0
Solid half year of learning for the Luxembourg driver. There have been flashes of speed when he’s had the confidence to push and extend the limits of the Puma Rally1 Hybrid.
Needs to be looking for more of the same in the second half of the year – a stage win or two would be nice before the season closes.
