WRC champion claims “all hopes are lost” after flat tire

Thierry Neuville says any hope of defending his World Rally Championship title are “lost” after a puncture derailed his shot of a podium in Rally Finland.

The reigning world champion felt a strong result on Finland’s fast gravel roads would be crucial in closing the gap to his title rivals, now sitting 48 points behind leader and Hyundai team-mate Ott Tanak with six rounds remaining.

Neuville was on course to deliver the podium target as the closest rival to long time leader Kalle Rovanpera on high-speed gravel roads, which he openly admitted are not to his liking.

Sitting in second 14.9s behind Rovanpera, Neuville suffered a front right puncture in stage 16 (Västilä 2 – 18.94 km). To make matters worse for Hyundai, teammate Adrien Fourmaux also picked up a front right failure in the stage.

The duo, perplexed by what had caused the failures, opted against stopping to change the wheels but lost almost two minutes, dropping the pair to sixth and seventh overall.

Neuville has endured his fair share of punctures this season, most notably in Greece when he slammed tyre manufacturer Hankook. This latest failure has left him believing his title hopes are over. 

“I don’t know what to say at the end,” Neuville told Motorsport. “It is hard to swallow, it is tough for the team and nobody deserves it to be honest.

“If you see the amount of effort everybody puts into it and the sacrifices we have done over the last few weeks, also many of the team not going home to get everything ready. 

“We did our homework as we have seen, as we were on course for a strong team result here for the manufacturers’ championship. I was on course to get back in the fight for the drivers’ championship, but unfortunately now I would say all hopes are lost. 

“It [the championship] is not finished but there is not much chance for us to get a good result tomorrow, and we were already far off [in the points].

“We needed a strong result here and we were on course and we prepared it very well, we did the job, but the puncture ruins our weekend.

“We have to investigate [the puncture], I can’t understand it. With Pirelli we were having much less issues than Toyota and now we are having much more. I have no idea but we need to find a solution.”

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who climbed from sixth to fourth as a result of the punctures, believes the Hyundai drivers were unfortunate, as he hit the same offending rocks.

“It is a shame for the two Hyundai guys, I think they were a bit unlucky,” he said. “I hit what I guess was the same thing and I thought I would have a puncture immediately as well but it didn’t. Nobody expects it and some get away with it and some don’t.”

Rovanpera feeling more like his old self as Finland win looms

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Neuville’s puncture eased the pressure on Rovanpera, whose Rally Finland lead ballooned to 36.1s over Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsura heading into Sunday’s final two stages.

The Finn, seeking his maiden win on home soil, rattled off five stage wins from the eight Saturday tests as he continued to grow in confidence aboard his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

“I’m definitely feeling more like that [my old self],” he said. “This afternoon we did some small changes to the car and it is starting to feel finally a bit more comfortable and I’m able to manage the speed and not just go flat out at every single place, so in that way it was quite nice.

“It was difficult conditions. The first one in the afternoon was crazy wet conditions, and I have never seen anything like that in Finland. It was difficult but the plan was to stay fighting and out of trouble and we did that well.”

Two passes through arguably the WRC’s most famous stage in Ouninpohja will decide the rally on Sunday, with Rovnapera unsure if he will go all out for the Super Sunday points.

“I feel quite good,” he added. “I know everyone will just learn the stage from memory and the gaps will be super small. Some will take crazy risk, so let’s see what we can take points-wise. I just want to have a clean day and also some good points.”

WRC Rally Finland – Day 3