For a man that once conquered the world, being lost in the doldrums didn’t suit him.
He’d likened himself previously to Lewis Hamilton – a Formula 1 legend who was struggling to find the confidence and feeling behind the wheel he craved.
The turning of a new year worked wonder for Hamilton, and now it appears Neuville is back in the game.
Granted, Toyota’s Oliver Solberg and Elfyn Evans gave him a couple of strong assists with their respective SS1 and SS3 accidents, but three stage wins (which immediately doubles his tally for 2026 so far) and second place overnight meant one thing.
“It was a great day,” the Hyundai driver told DirtFish. “It’s [been] a long time we haven’t had a great day like this, honestly, where the feeling was there. [But] I was able to find myself again behind the steering wheel with full confidence and trust and start enjoying it. So that’s a very, very long time ago [since that happened].”
As the Belgian remarked at the end of the day’s final stage: “It’s a small step for the world but a big one for us.”
But what made the difference, considering Hyundai’s peak performance has not dramatically improved?
“We found something for sure which we brought here, which we were able to build on throughout the day, simply,” Neuville explained. “And I think we were compensating maybe a little bit with the driving and taking a bit more risks in those tricky conditions.
“But this is only possible when the feeling is there and the trust is there. And that’s something I haven’t had for a long time and that’s why I was enjoying a lot today, despite not being first, but not far away.”
Neuville’s epiphany, in simple terms, is due to “a few little details which sometimes make a big difference”.
Neuville has more than doubled his stage wins tally for the current season with his opening-day performance in Croatia
He added: “We worked in the right way, we got the balance right, at least for those mid-stages. We still struggle a bit on the wider roads, but we know that. There’s still some time left before we go to Canaries where we have to work on that, that’s for sure.
“I also think that Toyota is still the faster car at the moment. We’re compensating a bit with the push we were giving in those tricky stages. But anything positive from the day we have to take and build on it for tomorrow.”
Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley said the team “need to capitalise” on opportunities like Friday morning where the two highest placed cars in the championship went off, and that’s exactly” what it did.
“We knew this rally was going to be difficult,” Wheatley told DirtFish. “The ultimate pace is not where we want to be. But we’re in second, fourth and fifth. The hard work that’s been done on reliability and making sure we don’t make mistakes is potentially, tonight, helping us out.”
As did Neuville’s driving.
Finding a setup that delivers performance without compromising drivability over a group of stages with varying characteristics has been a challenge for Hyundai
“I think if you go and watch stage six, that was as good as I’ve ever seen Thierry drive. It was remarkable. He did an incredible job,” Wheatley praised. “Battling the car against that particular type of stage is amazing. If you go and watch stage eight, it’s the worst. It’s the direct opposite of where we need to be.
“And I think that’s the problem here, is that the stages are quite different. If you go between stage two, three and four, there’s a massive difference. And that’s where it’s absolutely highlighting where we’re struggling, is that we can’t get one set-up that covers us over those two types of stages. Tomorrow, the gaps are smaller, the changes are less, so it should be slightly better.”
Neuville is 13.7s adrift of Sami Pajari’s leading Toyota overnight, and just 0.9s clear of Takamoto Katsuta.
“I know it won’t be easy, but we need to keep up the pressure,” he concluded. “Tomorrow is a very challenging day ahead, with this new stage [SS11/14], which is super tricky. So I think that anything is possible tomorrow.
“If we have the same feeling like today and the car behaves as good as this afternoon, at least we can give it a push.”
