Mads Østberg deserves a full-time factory seat in 2019. I refuse to believe there is anyone who doesn’t feel sorry for the Norwegian. How can you not love a man who exudes charisma, charm and humour in every single interview he gives. Especially when he backs it with consistent stage times in a var he hasn’t driven since Sweden. Mads has suffered from a non-starting season in 2018, having only been in the C3 twice. On both occasions he has shown his ability to finish consistently and quickly, in a car which he is not comfortable with or used to. Two 6th positions have netted him and the team a solid 16 points, one can only imagine what he could have been capable of had he been given a full pre-season and program. The Norwegian also showed a great amount of maturity in Portugal, choosing to disappoint fans over the Fafe jump in order to guarantee his C3 would make it over the line and in the process, net Citroen 8 points.

Toyota have some thinking to do. The Yaris is clearly a quick machine, when nothing goes mechanically wrong it can be blisteringly fast. Unfortunately at the moment, things keep going wrong. Latvala has endured a torrid first half of the season, and having retired from the previous three rallies, it is very likely that the only role he will play now for the team is in support of Tanak’s title challenge. A title challenge which could look all the more promising had the Estonian’s engine not failed in Mexico, relegating him to a low points finish while his French and Belgian rivals picked up 25 and 11 respectively. It must be remembered however, that this is only the second season of Toyota’s WRC program and with time, hopefully, Tommi Makkinen’s team can make the improvements required to sustain a title challenge.

going wrong. Latvala has endured a torrid first half of the season, and having retired from the previous three rallies, it is very likely that the only role he will play now for the team is in support of Tanak’s title challenge. A title challenge which could look all the more promising had the Estonian’s engine not failed in Mexico, relegating him to a low points finish while his French and Belgian rivals picked up 25 and 11 respectively. It must be remembered however, that this is only the second season of Toyota’s WRC program and with time, hopefully, Tommi Makkinen’s team can make the improvements required to sustain a title challenge. Ogier is human. Ever since he took his first title in 2013, there have been many asking whether or not he is capable of making a mistake. Well, Friday proved that he is indeed fallible as he cut a hairpin a fraction too tightly and left his Fiesta uncontrollably under-steering into some trees on the outside of the next corner. This left him another 10 stages to run on Saturday and Sunday with nothing to drive for before the power stage where he hoped he could pick up some of the 5 available championship points. Alas, things were made worse for the Frenchman as his early running position left him with sub-optimal surface conditions to complete the stage on, he finished outside of the top 5 and for the first time this season, picked up zero points.

Neuville is ‘quietly’ doing everything right to win the 2018 world championship. After 6 rounds in the championship, the Hyundai driver is only 9 points shy of Ogier’s total points at the same stage last season and he is 13 points ahead of his tally from 2017 as well. Unlike last season, the Belgian hasn’t shown dominating pace, but at the same time, he hasn’t been throwing it all away some 13/14 stages into the rally through simple mistakes. Following Tanak and Ogier’s retirements from this weekend’s rally, he is now the only driver to have taken points from every single event in 2018, and even more impressively has finished on the podium at all but two, finishing no lower than 6th in the process. Granted, things haven’t always met the incredibly high expectations, he and Michel Nandon set for themselves but he nonetheless finds himself at the very top of the championship standings with 7 more rallies to go.

Kris Meeke is still Kris Meeke. Going into this season, I, and I imagine a lot of UK based rally fans, were hoping for one thing. Kris Meeke to stop crashing. And the early signs were promising, it seemed as though he was doing what he could to finish rallies, rather than spend every stage at full throttle before the inevitable roll/tumble/flip/crash. Unfortunately however, it seems as things are slowly falling back into place.

Meeke’s car after the crash on SS12.

Having spent much of Friday in a podium position, the Dungannon man was in 7th position going into SS12. Halfway through the stage, the C3 was lying sideways, roll-cage destroyed, both driver and co-driver injury free, a testament to the safety of these 380HP machines.