Hyundai couldn’t believe it. Nobody could.
Thierry Neuville had over one minute in hand starting the powerstage, but a mistake early on the stage – getting caught out on gravel and then attempting to run down an escape road, only to clip some concrete and wreck his front-right suspension – handed victory to Toyota and Takamoto Katsuta.
Neuville made it to the end of the stage but retired the car.
“I can only say sorry to everyone involved,” said Neuville. “Working hard, that’s the only thing I can say. All the rest we will see later. I’ve no explanation at the moment, so, sorry. This cannot happen but we will see exactly what went wrong.”
Neuville limped to the end after some roadside repairs but retired after the powerstage finish control
Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley talked DirtFish through things from the team’s perspective.
“I remember being with Jari-Matti [Latvala] when he crashed in Poland [2009] on the finish and, honestly, this one’s harder,” Wheatley said, “because at that point it was another win that we lost. This one was needed. We needed this one.
“We came to this rally knowing that our pace wasn’t where we need to be. And honestly, it’s not where we can be. We know that there’s more to come but, I don’t know how, we found a way to keep pushing step, step, step, step, step until we got to a place where yesterday afternoon we sat back and thought this could be fantastic – and for a day and a half it pretty much was.
“And if we’re in a position and you say which driver in the top 10 is going to make a mistake on the last stage, it’s not Thierry. It’s not Thierry. And it’s definitely not Thierry with a minute in his pocket. We just genuinely couldn’t believe it.
Hyundai mission control in the service park could only look on in desperation as defeat was grasped from the jaws of victory
“But there’s two things that we need to be very clear on. First of all, we have to celebrate the small success and we have Hayden [Paddon] and John [Kennard] on the podium, which is a fantastic story. So this is, for me, important because we should be positively engaged with that.
“And the second thing is that we’re disappointed today, we’ll be disappointed tonight, but tomorrow morning we have to start again because we’re four rounds into a 14 round championship. We know we have the performance in the second half of the year to make a difference.
“We know we have to get to the second half of the year and we need to really redouble our efforts and make sure we come with the best opportunity we can.”
When it was pointed out to him that Neuville should’ve slowed down more on the loose gravel, Wheatley rebuffed: “He did slow down. The thing is we have no comprehension of the pressure that goes on inside that car. We have no comprehension.
“They are human beings at the end of the day,” he added. “And yes, it’s incredibly… it’s just not something that we would expect from Thierry. But mistakes happen. What’s most important is how we react and what we do in the next 24 hours will make a difference in the next six months.”
The resilience of Hyundai's personnel has been tested yet again by this latest setback
Neuville’s struggled for form and feeling behind the wheel since last season, but commented throughout the Croatia Rally weekend that his feeling had improved.
The last thing he needed was a hammerblow like this.
“I’ve only been in this team for six months and what I’ve seen is remarkable, remarkable resilience from people in the team. They’ve been kicked quite hard and they keep bouncing back,” Wheatley continued.
“And I’ll be honest with you, I think Thierry will take this hard. He’ll take it personally. He knows. Nobody can put more pressure on Thierry than Thierry can put on himself. It’s impossible. But I also know he has the heart of a lion and he will be the first to be at the debrief tonight to work out what we do to come back tomorrow so that when we come to Canaries with the best chance that we can.
“We know Canary Islands is going to be tough it’s going to be really difficult – it’s exactly where we don’t want to be for the next rally. But we also know that Portugal’s coming and we can be competitive in Portugal.”
