From the start of the World Rally Championship season, it was clear that Hyundai was quickly on top of the new-for-2024 scoring system.
The points bounty it offers on the final day of events had a marked impact on Hyundai’s strategy, while the Toyota camp appeared to remain more focused on overall results.
Maximizing the scoring opportunities offered via the new Super Sunday allocation and the more traditional powerstage played a significant role in both Thierry Neuville’s drivers’ title charge and his team’s manufacturers’ challenge.
Neuville himself scored at least 11 of the maximum Sunday dozen on four of the first six rounds of the season, despite winning only once. In contrast, Toyota drivers managed that feat on only one of the opening six events.
Right through to the Acropolis Rally, round 10 of the WRC season, there had only been four occasions when a Toyota driver recorded a Sunday score breaking into double figures.
Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier bounced back to score a maximum 12 points on Sunday in Chile having retired the day before
But, heading into the final three rounds of the year, with Hyundai in a commanding position in both championships, things changed in Chile. Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier bagged a Sunday maximum and team-mate Kalle Rovanperä – the rally’s overall winner – pocketed 10 for the Japanese marque.
The best a Hyundai driver could manage was Ott Tänak’s seven-point haul en route to third on the overall leaderboard.
Hyundai technical director François-Xavier Demaison admits it was a case of the WRC’s two grandee teams effectively swapping strategies. The team, and Neuville in particular, are now less willing to take risks as they seek to consolidate their advantage in the standings.
“We know that it’s the ‘money time’ now,” Demaison told DirtFish. “We have to score points, so that’s our priority.”
In practice, the outcome of the rally was that Toyota more than halved its manufacturers’ championship deficit, from 35 to 17 points, with only the Central European Rally and Rally Japan left on the schedule.
We were not really looking at the Sunday points because it’s the ‘money time’François-Xavier Demaison
When asked if it was a worry that Toyota appeared to have finally got to grips with Sunday scoring, Demaison added: “It’s also us. We sort of swapped the strategy.
“We were not really looking at the Sunday points because, as I said earlier, it’s a ‘money time’. We have to take the points and sometimes trying to gain too many, you lose too many. So it’s where we stand today.”
Chile’s loose gravel worked against Neuville and Tänak’s road position, as well as the current characteristics of the squad’s i20 N Rally1. But Demaison is confident that Hyundai will get the job done on the asphalt of CER and Japan – and that Neuville’s desire to secure a maiden drivers’ title will not conflict with resisting renewed pressure from Toyota in the manufacturers’.
“It’s a good problem to have, isn’t it?” Demaison said. “Personally, I like it, because it’s the type of fight I like, so managing both of them and we’ll fight for both championships.
“The next two rallies are Tarmac rallies, so we are looking forward for these two rallies where at least for the Friday Ott and Thierry will have a very good start position. So it’s promising for them. We minimize the loss here and are looking forward for the next two.”
