Just days after his victory at Acropolis Rally Greece, World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville will be back in competition in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 this weekend.
Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe have been entered into Rally Ciudad de Granada (September 13-14) in Spain, two weeks before the next WRC event in Chile.
Although Neuville will still lead the world championship after Chile regardless of his result, he is searching for more seat-time and understanding of setup with on-location testing prohibited for flyaway events.
“We will try to get a bit more seat-time in the car and be as well prepared as we can for Chile,” Neuville told DirtFish.
Chile's smooth gravel will be very different from the rough surface on the Acropolis
Hyundai technical director François-Xavier Demaison further explained the rationale.
“You need to do kilometers,” he told DirtFish.
“I mean, in Chile it’s a different type of rally than this one [Acropolis]. So, you know, we gave Ott a rally earlier in the season [Estonia] and we do the same [for Thierry]. We want to be equal with our drivers.
“So, for Chile we will go to Spain to do a smooth rally. It’s a smooth gravel rally to get more prepared for Chile.”
The Granada-based event is a round of the Spanish Gravel Cup.
Mārtiņš Sesks, who will return to M-Sport’s lineup in a non-hybrid Puma Rally1 in Chile, will also contest the event, albeit in a Ford Fiesta Rally2.
