Even if we assume that Robert's lead is down to car advantage (a big part of it is, not doubt), Loix is a very experienced and fast (yeah, not the fastest, I know) driver so "matching" him having as little experience as Robert has is a proper achievment imho. With experience (and progress in rehabilitation) there is probably a lot of room for improvement.
I think we may get excited a bit (to quote one particular rally fan) at this point
BTW I've seen a quote from Loix that he knows these roads very well because he drives on them often and trains (on his bike IIRC) on them as well.
BTW2 Robert was rumored to be doing the best times in the Clio when he was the zero car a few weeks ago
Johnston wrote:
Also another thing to note is as far as championships go, the other guy didn't have to beat Kubica for points if he's not registered. So no point racing him and risking the off. As far as the championship goes he maybe still "won" .
It's something that happens the odd time here. Someone will enter their local round of the international championship and win it. But the guy in second thinking of a championship won't chase, they'll be happy to take second in the rally which is 1st in the championship and take the points rather than risk binning it. Sometimes unless the guy is well known they won't even get so much as a passing mention on the coverage
.
Other oddities that can happen is for the championship they might have a spec fuel or tyre. If your not registered for the championship you are not bound by this. An example would be a few years ago the British rally Championship had to use Tesco 99 octane petrol. But if you just entered the rally in the same class you could use high octane stuff instead. Or indeed two championships using the same rally can have different regs. That has happened when the British and Irish have used the same rallies.
A few things to consider before people get too excited.
Mighty result all the same
All valid points. The second guy said he wasn't pushing when he had a big enough lead over third. But on other hand Kubica also had no reason to push - no championship to win, a huge lead etc. He also said he was rather cautious. So it kinda evens itself out
As for the tires etc, we don't know. It's possible. But the facts are that most of the time Robert was on the wrong tire (like slightly cut "slicks" on rain). Reports from people who were on site and close suggested that he often had worse tires compund/type than his rivals. I think that this would nullyfy any real advantage from having better tires in right conditions.
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