Rally Paraguay turned into a major disappointment for Thierry Neuville. The Belgian was forced to retire after the opening stage, having damaged his car following a puncture. He was the only one of Hyundai's three drivers to miss out on a top result, as the team claimed second and third places through Hayden Paddon and Adrien Fourmaux.
“My team-mates had a good weekend, and that’s good for the team. That was the positive thing about the weekend. For us, the weekend was lost right at the start,” Neuville said in an interview with RTBF.
“On Saturday, we focused solely on driving and preparing for Sunday so that we could score some points. We ran with quite a soft set-up. I was able to get used to it so that I would be effective in the rain on Sunday, but the rain never came. Even so, we finished third in the Super Sunday standings and scored points on the Power Stage. That was all we could do,” he reflected.
“I have to give the team credit because our car was competitive. That was by no means a given. We have never been particularly strong in rallies of this type. It bodes well for Chile,” the Hyundai driver said on a positive note.
The final day of the rally was overshadowed by Takamoto Katsuta’s heavy crash, which brought out the red flag and led to the cancellation of stage 21. Neuville, who had started the stage immediately after the Japanese driver, reached the scene soon after the accident.
“When we got the red flag, it was obviously frightening. I was going well on the stage when I received the instruction to slow down. We quickly contacted the team by radio to find out whether we needed to hurry to the scene to help. Around a minute later, we received confirmation that he had got out of the car and that they both appeared to be more or less all right,” Neuville said.
The sight of the crash scene stopped the Belgian in his tracks. “As we approached the scene, we could obviously see the damage. The car was on its roof. There were a huge number of parts scattered around and a pole had been knocked down. Of course, that was worrying.”
“Especially because Taka is my friend. We see each other every day in Monaco when we take our children to school. So it was a bit of a shock at first. But when we were able to speak to them later, we were relieved,” the Belgian concluded.
Baca Juga
Thierry Neuville mengaku insiden Takamoto Katsuta di Rally Paraguay sangat menakutkan. Pebalap Hyundai itu juga kecewa dengan hasil buruknya.
WRT Rally1 Spain target debut di Reli Korsika April, kembangkan mesin sendiri, dan sudah dekati pembalap top serta talenta muda Spanyol untuk musim 2027.
Toyota dan Hyundai memutuskan tidak bisa terbang ke Rally Saudi Arabia karena pembatasan perjalanan ke Timur Tengah. FIA masih mencari solusi agar putaran final WRC tetap berjalan.
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