ERC Estonia Fight to the bitter END!

ERC Estonia:
Thrilling End:
dirtfish.com/r...
Paddon keeps going:
www.fiaerc.com...
Results and Points:
www.fiaerc.com...
www.fiaerc.com...
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[@chrisbiewer-rallye-info]

Great video. And a proof the we don’t need artificial points, it is the layout of the WRC rallies to blame! ERC proves this over and over and over again! Not a single ERC event this year has failed us on last stage excitement!
And keep that on mind when you are reading on. ERC does not have SuperSunday and I would even claim if ERC did not have power stage points, it would not have made a difference at all here!
- Think as well, what you are to read, since the invention of that new points system I don’t think we have seen a single WRC event with so many position changes on the Sunday! Not even for SuperSunday alone, and despite the new system, who even cares about Sunday standings when there is a rally result to gain?
I must admit, Estonia was a very short Sunday for an ERC event. But note:
ERC Estonia power stage:
- at 21.3km it was the longest stage of the rally bar 140yards!
- the power stage was longer than every stage of WRC Poland bar 1!
- a typical WRC power stage is 7-8kms, this power stage was triple the length!
- Yes, end the rally with a real highlight, not this farting about WRC does! And FARTING ABOUT it is, this is rally, not RallyCross or Autotests or Grassrootes! What is the point of rallying from Paris to Dakar to then decide the result on the Beach? Or by throwing a coin, which actually happened!
- And OK, here the weather contributed, all Estonia stages were dry, the power stage completely wet. But that was a fluke and given all the points above, I think even in the dry this would have been mega!
More numbers, let’s take the fight for victory as discussed in the video:
Georg Linnamäe vs Robert Virves: Funny fight and a great example of the camerady in rallying. Note:
- They both are actually great friends.
- Both are from host town Tartu and therefore knew the stages well (as is Sesks).
- Virves is gravel note crew for Linnamäe in WRC tarmac rallies!
- both have their birthdays on the same day, just after the rally, Monday 8th July.
- Both not only have British co-drivers, both co-drivers are from Wales!
- There are so many similarities, I had to digg deep to find my favourite. For me it indeed went down to their codrivers, Virves co Craig Drew is a multiple USA Champion, for Linnamäe co James Morgan this would be the first international victory, so great on him!
Now that battle. Since I pinned my fav on wishing a first codrivers success, I take the battle for seconds on Sunday from the point of Linnamäe/Morgan:
Linnamäe vs Virves:
- started the Sunday exactly +1s on Virves.
In the end L won -2.2s, but so much happened in between:
- after 1st Sunday stage: L +4.6s
- 2nd stage: L fought back, still +2.9s
- 3rd stage: Massive time from V, L now +9.3, this is a lot, can he get it back?
- power stage: L a massive 11.5s quicker, was on the soft tyres and householded them (what nerves must he have?!) and won by -2.2s!
Note ARTIFICIAL POINTS:
Neither Linnamäe nor Virves do the ERC, so it was not the power stage points that made them quick, they both wanted to simply win the rally and both had their strategies! Neither of them could have cared less about the power stage points! Nobody ever talks about that in days and years to come!
@TheHotGuy, sad you had no more time for the video. Normally I find long videos tricky to watch. But this fight for winner is by far not where it ended!
My favourite was the fight between Ostberg & Paddon. For who reads this, it is again the camerady in rally fans. Soccer, who comes 2nd is a loser and there seems to be a rule you have to beat up the winner or vice versa….
Well, for who follows our discussions, TheHotGuy is a Hyundai fan, I am a Citroen fan. And I found it a massive shame TheHotGuy was at the British GP, I honestly thought there is a battle developping where I lose a beer to him with Citroen vs Hyundai:
First: where did you get that last results screen? They have a massive mistake: Gryazin (Citroen!) came 3rd! And you said correctly Paddon was 5th, not 4th!
Gryazin was interesting in itself. For Citroen Yoann Bonato was not available, he did a French championship round. For Gryazin in turn his usual codriver is not available on the next WRC2 round Latvia, so it was a great idea to drag Gryazin in as a one off, to get used to his step-in codriver.
Also note after Saturday Mikko Heikkilä was 3rd overall, but sadly he had to retire with the same popp off valve problem that slowed Sesks all weekend. But isn’t exactly that what makes Rally1 so boring?
Rally2 are closer to real cars, the new Toyota is fast, it won, but the other 2 Toyotas in this event had alltogether 4 faulty popp off valves, and in Heikkilä’s case it led to a blown engine. So something to work on and I suspect this is a discovery that is going to make the GR Yaris road car better as well! From Rally1 the road cars don’t profit one bit!
Anyway, with all that, let’s now look at the battle Ostberg vs Paddon, I report from an Ostberg point of view:
- Ostberg started Sunday in 6th place, 19.8s ahead of Paddon in 7th! 6Th & 7th? Maybe we should have expected more from both previous WRC rally winners. But then Sesks proved in Poland how strong really the ERC is. And early Sunday Ostberg = -19.8s ahead, forgone conclusion, isn’t it?
- after 1st Sunday stage: O = -17.0s, all in plan, forgone conclusion. Interesting here is that both were very fast, both started catching Marczyk in 5th!
- next stage: O is trying so hard, he overshot 2 junctions. He still gained 2 places. This is the stage where Heikkilä retired and Marczyk had a misfire. Ostberg from 6th to 4th, -0.4 on Marczyk (and wouldn’t it be fantastic for the championship if Ostberg could keep Marczyk between him and Paddon?) and - way more worringly - - 9s on Paddon. Paddon was 8s faster than Ostberg here!
- penultimate stage, a shorter stage, positions remain, Ostberg now -3.6 ahead of Marczyk, my championship idea could work, but Paddon again the fastest of that trio, O now -5.8 ahead of P?
S**t, I love picking on TheHotGuy, but I really have a problem here! Paddon has reduced the gap to Ostberg from 19.8 to 17.0 to 9.0 to 5.8 and guess what, the longest stage of the rally is yet to come! At this rate there is no way Ostberg can keep this.
I HATED it, but at the same time, it was so exciting, I had to inform TheHotGuy: “F” your roundabout soap box thingy and watch how your Hyundai slaughters my Citroen!
Maybe the change of weather helped, but then Paddon is from NZ, he knows about driving in the rain. And sure enough, Paddon did a great job. He had a spin early in the stage, but came back so strongly, that he actually overtook Marczyk for 5th! But then Ostberg was the star of the last stage. I barely couldn’t believe my eyes watching the splits! Ostberg was a full 13s faster than Gryazin, who was the faster Citroen driver all weekend! Ostberg virtually picked out this stage to make a mockery of everyone, a quality and tactic I haven’t seen since Richard Burns! OK, Linnamäe was driving on a different planet...
It was so gripping, if the fight Virves vs Linnamäe was already great with surprising outcome….
Ostberg vs Paddon: - 19.8s, -17.0s, -9.0s, -5.8s, longest stage still to come, the tendency is clear, even as an expert I would have never thought in the end, despite Paddon doing well, it would be -36.0s!
Thanks for that beer, TheHotGuy, that one will be especially tasty!

[@thehotlapshow]

Thanks Chris, means a lot :-) loved your rundown of the lead battle!
I just wish ERC was advertised more as it really is as a competition more fin to watch than the WRC, in my opinion

[@flowcore8955]

@@thehotlapshow in everyones opinion, haha (At least of the people who know about it)

[@0626love]

wow nice amount of details.
You mean Sesks live in Tartu nowadays? I didn't know that one. Nor that Virves lives there, he's originally from Saaremaa (as Ott) but I could be remembering it wrong.