Thierry Neuville faces an uphill battle on the Friday afternoon of the Monte Carlo Rally, as a forced component change has left him fighting his car.
A leak developed in the gearbox of his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 on Friday night, which meant a precautionary change took place.
But the bigger problem was the differential needed changing with it – which led to an impact on vehicle performance.
“I didnt feel it but unfortunately I think there was a small leakage,” Neuville told DirtFish.
“I had to swap the gearbox but more importantly the differential, which I didn’t like so much on shakedown. But now I’m stuck with that basically.
“It’s just less locking and a bit more surprises under braking,” he added, explaining the difference between the differential he’d been forced to take when swapping the gearbox.
While it doesn’t compromise his rally directly, it does mean reverting to a component that he knows is going to slow him down.
“We can still use the other gearbox, but we don’t want to take the risk. So I hope that tomorrow midday or something I can switch back to the other gearbox for the rest of the rally and manage the leakage. It’s not decided yet.”
Neuville holds third place, trailing Sébastien Ogier’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 by 13.8s after stage five.
