Sébastien Ogier has told Thierry Neuville to “learn to open the road” after a troubled first day of Acropolis Rally Greece in which he lost the lead due to a turbo problem.
Ogier has become Neuville’s closest rival for this year’s World Rally Championship title, closing to 27 points behind with victory on last month’s Rally Finland.
In a bid to help Toyota win both championships, the eight-time champion is set to see out the rest of the season and thus attempt to steal the drivers’ crown from Neuville’s grasp.
Neuville has led the WRC all season after victory in Monte Carlo, but has found it tough at times opening the road on so many gravel events – letting that frustration boil over in Latvia when he said doing a part-time season would be much more fun.
Starting just one place behind on the road in Greece, Ogier had been leading at first service with Neuville fifth – hampered by an engine problem which dropped his Hyundai down to three cylinders at times.
Neuville holds third after Friday's action, one place ahead of title rival Ogier
But a turbo problem for Ogier on the penultimate stage robbed the Frenchman of over two minutes and dropped him to fourth.
Arriving back at the media zone in Lamia, Ogier took the opportunity to throw a jibe in the direction of his championship rival.
“Obviously for us, it made a big stop to what was looking so far to be a perfect day,” Ogier told DirtFish.
“With great speed from second on the road, we took 45 seconds to the championship leader, so maybe he should learn to open the road because he’s not really fast from first on the road, he just cries all the time.
“So let’s try to put pressure on him, I’m sure we can still do things.”
DirtFish put Ogier’s comments to Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul, whose team occupy the top three positions on the leaderboard heading into Saturday.
“I’m just looking at the classification,” Abiteboul smiled.
“Just look at the classification, just look at the FIA Gala in December and we’ll see then who’s the first.”
