Hyundai has reiterated its drivers Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak are currently free to fight for the World Rally Championship without fear of team orders, according to team principal Cyril Abiteboul.
The Korean manufacturer’s two full-time drivers Neuville and Tanak are split by eight points in the title race after last weekend’s Rally Latvia with five rounds of the season remaining.
Neuville has led the championship since winning the opening round in Monte Carlo in January although his advantage was cut significantly in Latvia after struggling while opening the road at the high-speed gravel rally.
The Belgian had taken a 15-point margin over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and 21-point lead over Tanak heading into the rally, but events in Latvia has left the top three covered by 13 points.
Abiteboul mentioned before the start of the season that his drivers would receive “absolute parity” from the team, but there would be a point in the season when an internal review would take place where team orders could be implemented.
With the title race so finely poised, Abiteboul expects his drivers to continue to fight each other for the title.
Podium: Winners Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1, second place Ott Tanak, Martin Jarveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1, third place Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport
“Of course, they can fight, and they have to fight. If one of the two is not fighting, it means probably losing a position to our competition from a team perspective or in the drivers’ championship, which we have no reason to do at this point,” Abiteboul told Autosport/Motorsport.com.
“I would say that we would not be shy if there is a necessity to [back one of our drivers in the future], but I don’t think that there is a necessity to right now.
“We’ve done some stuff over the weekend that maybe went under the radar. Esapekka [Lappi] let Thierry go by on Friday and played a team game and that helps. These are the sort of things that we are doing.
“But when it’s so tight, and Elfyn is very close obviously and [Sebastien] Ogier is coming back quick I don’t think there is much you can ask for at this point in the season, so we’ll keep on pushing for giving the best possible condition to these two guys and if something was to occur in the season, we would do it. But it’s obviously not the right moment.”
Although frustrated at being hampered by road position in Latvia, Neuville is refusing to let his desire to score a maiden world title drop.
“We will continue pushing. We’re still first in the championship. The next event [in Finalnd] will be very challenging as well but what can we do?” Neuville told Autosport/Motorsport.com.
“Obviously I would have loved to be first on the Power Stage [in Latvia], but again, the conditions weren’t good enough and on Sunday morning I was spinning a lot of wheels, trying to push the maximum and I was using a lot of the tyres.”
Tanak’s timely haul of 22 points in Latvia despite a myriad of problems, including being delayed by an inflatable promotional arch, has brought the Estonian firmly into the title fight, which he expects will continue until the final round.
“The rally [in Latvia] has not been good. The rally has been full of entertainment, so we’ve been always fighting back,” Tanak told Autosport/Motorsport.com.
“We had a wrong tyre choice in the first stage and then after we struggled with the car, and then we lost the brakes. It’s always been a hard fight, but then Sunday went in our favour [scoring the maximum 12 points].
“We are just playing, and this [title fight] will go until the end of the year so we will see.”
Hyundai also leads the manufacturers’ championship by a point from Toyota heading in Finland next month.
