So who is declared the winner of the rally under the new points system? And how does classification work?
Final order on Sunday is still the final classification that goes in the books? So say Thierry wins the power stage but has an accident after and finishes last. He’ll get 18 for Saturday, five for the power stage and get 23 points for the weekend even though in the final classification he’ll be 7th or 8th. So say I go check Wikipedia next year for this rally it’ll say Neuville finished 7th but got 23 points. I get what they’re trying to do with this new points system, but it seems like-in terms of record keeping at the very least-this could cause a lot of headaches and confusion going forward.
This points system made sense in my head, but now thinking about it it seems quite odd. Situations where the winner might not score the most points for the weekend, situations where the final classified order is incongruous with the points handed out (like my example above where Neuville will be classified 7th technically but have more points than anyone besides 1st). Something just seems odd about the fact that someone could technically finish 7th in a rally but finish second best in terms of championship impact. The question I’m asking is; final classification is just finishing order on Sunday still, right? Regardless of new points system ramifications, the final order is still just the final order on Sunday?