The Acropolis Rally marked the final rough gravel event of the 2024 WRC season, making it the perfect moment to break down each driver's performance in the most demanding rallies on the calendar. Looking at the standings doesn't really give us the full story, as mechanical issues, punctures and driver errors are important context that is being left out. So who has been the fastest on rough gravel, and who has been the most consistent? Well keep reading if you want to find out!
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Before we dive in, let's break down how these numbers are determined! There are two key variables: Deficit to Ideal Time (measured in seconds per kilometer) and Percentage of Stages Completed with a Representative Time (expressed as a percentage). The first variable, Deficit to Ideal Time, reflects a driver's speed. It is calculated by comparing the driver's performance to the ideal pace, where the ideal pace is defined as a driver who won all the stages. Essentially, this shows how fast or slow a driver was throughout the season. The second variable, Percentage of Stages Completed with a Representative Time, relates to a driver's reliability. This percentage is based on the number of stages a driver completed with a competitive time relative to the total number of stages in the season, excluding super special stages (SSSs). A non-representative time might occur when a driver faces issues like mechanical problems, punctures, wrong tyre choices, or is simply cruising. To determine if a time is non-representative, it is compared to times from either the previous run of the stage or times from the same loop/day. If the time has a deficit more than 160% of the previous pass or loop average, it is classified as non-representative.
This season featured four rough gravel rallies: the Safari Rally, Rally Portugal, Rally Sardegna, and the Acropolis Rally. Across these events, 10 drivers have competed in a Rally1 car in at least one of them. Here's a breakdown of how each driver fared on these loose and rocky events:
To make things clearer, here’s all the data presented in a table.
Starting from top to bottom, we can see that despite being first in the championship, Thierry Neuville is actually not the fastest driver on rough gravel, in fact he is the 4th fastest. That is mostly because the Belgian has had the "privilege" of sweeping the road for his competitors, as he has been leading the championship since Monte-Carlo. Neuville has also been less consistent compared to some of his foes, because of engine issues in the Safari Rally, and an accident in Rally Sardegna. He and Ott Tanak both have one win to their names, with the Estonian winning Rally Sardegna on the final stage of the rally. Tanak has been extremely consistent on the rough rallies, and he is perhaps unfortunate to not have scored more wins, as he crashed out in Safari, and punctures robbed him of a better result in Portugal and Greece. By contrast, Sebastien Ogier is the fastest, and most consistent driver out of the bunch, benefiting from a better road position in Portugal and Sardinia (he did not do Safari). The Toyota driver's consistency has been immaculate, with his only non representative times being in the last two Power Stages, and the stages where his turbo went bust in Acropolis.
Despite others claiming otherwise, Neuville has done a great job from first on the road
Picture from the Acropolis Rally website
In the mid-pack, Elfyn Evans is actually the second slowest Rally1 driver on rough gravel, only faster than M-Sport's Gregoire Munster! He has had not an ideal road position for almost all of them, but that's not an excuse if we compare what his rivals have done, sometimes with a worse road position on Friday. Evans is still consistent, with mechanical problems robbing him of a better result in Portugal and Acropolis, but his lack of pace in those four rallies is something he will need to look at for 2025. Adrien Fourmaux on the other hand, is just as consistent, and faster than the Welshman! He scored a podium in Safari, was 4th in Portugal, but failed to finish in the top 10 in Acropolis and Sardegna mostly due to mechanical issues. If he can built on this, he could be challenging for wins in 2025, not just podiums. On the other hand, Takamoto Katsuta may be faster than both of the aforementioned drivers, but he has failed to finish consistently. The Japanese driver finished on the podium in Safari, but failed to finish in the top 10 in all of the rest of the events! The fact that he crashed in Portugal and Acropolis under similar conditions, is part of the reason why the Japanese driver has been benched for Rally Chile.
Fourmaux's podium in Safari is something he could build on for 2025
Picture from the Acropolis Rally website
Rounding up the table, Kalle Rovanpera only competed in two of those rallies, and was as fast as his teammate Sebastien Ogier, winning the Safari Rally, and leading Rally Portugal before crashing. His crash in Portugal is why he has a lower percentage in stages completed. Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi split the third Hyundai car on rough gravel. Lappi was having a decent Safari rally before he was robbed of a good result due to a broken transmission (twice). Sordo's best performance was actually in Greece, with the Spaniard even leading the rally at one point, before a puncture dropped him further back. His good results have come through consistency, not pace. He was a lot faster in both Portugal and Acropolis than he was in Sardinia where he was the second slowest Rally1. As for Gregoire Munster... he barely resembled a Rally1 driver in those rallies. He achieved a 5th place finish in Italy, but he was 1.68s/km off the pace there. In Acropolis he was half of that off the ideal pace, but he went off the road.
Sordo's consistency has really helped Hyundai in the Manufacturer's Standings
Picture from the Acropolis Rally website
Now here's how many points each driver scored on rough gravel this season:
You can see there's an immediate correlation between the graph and the actual points scored, but the day someone suffered points in the rally also plays a part due to this year's points system. Meaning a problem on Sunday, is less catastrophic, if it's not terminal. (Just look at Ogier in Acropolis).
Written by Dimitris Theodorou
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