Thierry Neuville rolled out of Rally Chile’s second leg on Saturday’s opening stage, flipping his Hyundai several times.
Although Neuville was fastest on SS3, the 2024 world champion has struggled to find the ultimate confidence aboard his i20 during the Chilean event.
He started Saturday in sixth place, 27.4 seconds shy of rally leader Oliver Solberg but failed to finish SS7 Pelún.
Bottoming out through a fifth-gear right hander, Neuville ran off-line and was soon a passenger as his car headed for a bank on the outside. The bank pitched the Hyundai into several rolls before it came to rest on its wheels.
Both Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe are OK.
“Basically, we got caught over a bump,” Neuville told DirtFish. “I lost the contact with the front after the bump, and we went a bit wide. We hit the ditch, and it just threw us around. We had a couple of rolls, so unfortunately, the end of the rally for us.
“We are both fine, that’s the most important. And, yeah, the car shows again how safe they are.
“It’s a while we are not feeling very comfortable in the car and there was no real change today,” he added. “And if the pleasure isn’t there, things are not going our way obviously, it makes everything more difficult. So, yeah, very unfortunate, but we are sorry for the team. And yeah, we will fight back.”
“It was obviously a dramatic roll – very small mistake with a big consequence,” said Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley.
“If you look at the splits, Thierry was the only person in front of Séb at the midpoint of the stage and that’s clearly pushing quite extreme considering where he was yesterday, it was a significant improvement in performance. But unfortunately you have to also get to the end of the stage.”
