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Rally Croatia is back, but can it deliver the same thrills as last year?
Eight weeks is far too long without any World Rally Championship action, but fear not, it's game-on again next week on the asphalt roads around Zagreb, Croatia.
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Enough is enough. And eight weeks is definitely enough. The gap between the second and third round of the World Rally Championship was always going to be a tough one to bridge. Finally, it's done, and Rally Croatia kicks off on April 22.
Welcome back to Croatia
Drafted into the calendar last year as a replacement for events being lost elsewhere in the world, Rally Croatia was an immediate hit. The Tarmac roads are like nothing else on the calendar, and the welcome was spectacular even with the country still operating under strict pandemic guidelines.
Battered?
Remember the road accident? The policeman? The whole nightmare that was Sunday in Croatia for Ogier last year?
Sébastien Ogier was last year's winner in Zagreb, but is absent this time
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Deliverance from that misery came with a staggering – and winning – run through the Power Stage. The release of raw emotion from Ogier at this event was one of the unforgettable moments of last season.
For Evans, the misery was compounded by the fact that he knew he'd dropped this one. Going into the penultimate corner, he got on the loose and compromised everything. "I missed the last corner," he said, frustration writ right across his face. "It didn't cost me everything, but it cost me a second."
In an event decided by six-tenths of a second. That was everything.
"You’ve got to move on from that," said Evans following his pre-event test in Croatia earlier this month. "Last year was a good event for us, we learned a lot, and we have to use that knowledge this time. I know I've not had the best of starts to this year, but like I said, it’s about looking forwards and scoring some points."
Ogier's part-time programme with Toyota means he won't be in Croatia, leaving Esapekka Lappi to make his asphalt debut in the Yaris Rally1.
All eyes on Kalle
For the second year in succession, Kalle Rovanperä will lead the Drivers' Championship into the stages around Zagreb. And this time, he fully intends to come out of the first one. Last year, he binned it on a fast right-hander not far from the finish.
"There was no grip," he said. "I was just getting understeer all of the time. I pushed and I shouldn’t have done, and then went into the trees."
Kalle Rovanperä will be hoping for a dramatic improvement on his 2021 rally
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Ogier came within an inch of following him in: "I was coming out of the car and trying to get up the bank to slow him down, but then I looked up and saw the underside of his car coming over the bank! It was a close one, but he got through."
Arriving in Croatia 14 points up on Neuville, Rovanperä's main aim is to depart with that gap intact.
"It's going to be more tricky for me this year," said the 21-year-old Finn. "It was a new event for everybody [last year], and it seems that it was quite a tricky one with the grip and the conditions. Everybody was saying that the stages are quite tricky with the grip. Now, everybody has one more year of experience there than me, so I think it's going to be a bit difficult for us. We have been in that situation before, though, and we just try to manage that the best way possible."
Craig Breen will be aiming to recover his from from Monte-Carlo
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Breen ready to bounce back
M-Sport Ford made the best possible start to the season, with Sébastien Loeb winning Rallye Monte-Carlo and his team-mate Craig Breen posting third. Loeb skipped Sweden while the Irishman slipped into a snowbank, making round two a more forgettable affair.
Breen struggled in Croatia last year, returning to a World Rally car at the highest level on Tarmac for the first time in three years, but now he's in a different frame of mind.
"Last year was a disaster, we were on the back foot from the start," he said. "It's totally different now. I can’t wait. Eight weeks – we've been waiting too long. The stages in Croatia remind me a little bit of home, so let’s see what we can do. It's a good place to bounce back."
Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux field the other factory Puma Rally1 Hybrids.
Also looking to bounce back is Hyundai. A torrid time in Monte Carlo was eased slightly by Neuville’' second place in Sweden, but the Korean manufacturer is badly in need of a strong showing in Croatia.
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