RALLY POLAND, ROVANPERA RETURNS AND SWEEPS THE BOARD
Called in at the last moment, the Finn manages to fend off his pursuers
A wide range of strategies among the crews for the second passes and on Sunday morning
Testoni: “A nice rally in which tyre reliability was vital”
Even if it’s only by chance, or by necessity, they sometime return and make their mark. That was the case with Kalle Rovanpera who won Rally Poland having been called up at the last minute by Toyota, to replace Sebastian Ogier who had to pull out following a road accident during the recce. It was also the case for Andreas Mikkelsen, who Hyundai only bring out for a few rallies during the season. He challenged the Finnish champion as an equal and looked capable of winning up until an unfortunate incident on Sunday morning on SS16 when he knocked a tyre bead off its rim. There was another return of sorts for Ott Tanak, who rejoined the rally on Sunday morning after two days marred by accidents, winning 2 stages out of 4, going on to score the most points on Super Sunday.
THE CHALLENGE
All these unexpected comebacks definitely pleased the spectators who witnessed a closely fought event, with plenty of drama, in which tyre reliability proved to be vital on the fast, slippery, dirty gravel roads on the first passes, which then turned more abrasive second time around, usually with high temperatures. These conditions set the crews some questions relating to the best combination of tyres to carry, often resulting in various different strategies.
While on Friday morning, all the teams were unanimous in choosing the soft tyres with just one spare, in the afternoon, tackling the more abrasive surfaces, most drivers went for the soft, with the only but important exceptions being Rovanpera, Evans and Katsuta (2 hard and 3 soft) and Mikkelsen (2 hard and 4 soft), the latter first losing ground to the Finn before ending the day in the lead.
The softs were still the main choice on Saturday morning, while in the afternoon, there were some different choices made among the crews, Mikkelsen went for the hard (3 to 2 soft) without it delivering any great advantage over his closest rivals, Rovanpera and Evans, who had gone for just one soft compound and four hard.
The choices were also split for the Sunday morning sections. The most popular tyre was, as expected, the soft but the hard also came into play as the fifth tyre for most of the crews. The only ones to go for the Scorpion Soft exclusively were the Toyota drivers, who brought along 5.
It’s worth noting the high average speeds, with Thierry Neuville claiming the record with an average speed of 133 km/h, against 100 km/h maximum in the Portuguese Rally and 90 km/h in Sardinia.
PIRELLI QUOTE
Terenzio Testoni, Rally Activity Manager: “These days, it’s rather unusual to see such variety in terms of strategy on world championship gravel rallies. The drivers are well aware of the versatility of the Soft Scorpion and often rely on it in all conditions. On this rally, the strategy was usually dictated by the different driving styles, as in the case of Mikkelsen who generally prefers the harder compounds, and because the Polish rally is a relative newcomer, having been absent from the world championship calendar for the past seven years. In the end, those who opted for the soft, which was the prime here, did better. What is clear is that the updated version of the Scorpion which we introduced, has also passed the high speed test with flying colours. Let’s see what happens in Latvia, where I expect similar surfaces to those here in Poland.”
In Rally2, Sami Pajari and his Toyota Yaris Rally2 took command of matters right from the start, with no one able to get anywhere near him until halfway through the rally. In the end, second and third places went to Robert Virves and Oliver Solberg respectively, both at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia. As from SS 10, they began to distance the rest of the field, behind the Finn.
Here below a graphic summary of the Polish Rally
