I think it goes back to what i said in my first point Paul, although the R is a much better car than my Cupra, it still ultimately suffers the same downfalls, a poor chassis and poorly setup suspension which hurt it on anything but billiard table like roads.
The Type R handles superbly, but on a twisty road is very difficult to keep above 6000rpm all the time.... the Leons suffer from poor suspension on the technical stuff, while the GTI with near zero lag and a fantastic chassis and balance can make mincemeat out of higher powered cars because it can carry so much speed through corners and change direction in the blink of an eye.