Fourmaux have finished third in the WRC eight times, but now he finally claimed his first runner-up spot. Even so, he was understandably frustrated, as more had been on offer.
Fourmaux ended up 54.7 seconds behind the rally winner, Thierry Neuville. On Friday evening, the Hyundai driver received a one-minute time penalty after checking in one minute early at the technical zone. After the rally, Fourmaux explained the events that led to the penalty.
“It was a wrong information that have not been changed. And then for 10 seconds, we get one minute penalty. Alex (co-driver Corria) did check with another marshal and the marshal said yes for early checking. Okay, but we are in a different country. They maybe not speak english very well. We don’t know. Maybe he said yes but they don’t really understand. And then at the end we get the penalty,” Fourmaux explained.
“So there is a bit of misunderstanding with the communication and the wrong information at the beginning cost it. That’s obviously frustrating. It’s quite hard but it doesn’t remove our rally. We are the unofficial winner.”
In addition to the Saudi Arabia rally, Fourmaux also reached the podium this season in Monte Carlo, Greece and Chile. There were several retirements as well, but the pace was consistent throughout the year.
“If you remove our penalty, I’m really pleased with how we managed this rally. We made the decision to take softs at the beginning, against the decision of the others, and we made the right choice in doing that. We were managing the pressure of the others catching up with us, and I’m really pleased we were able to and have that self-control inside of the car,” Fourmaux summed up.
“We are the unofficial winners! The speed is there, the management is there and so is the reliability for us, so these are the things I need to keep up my motivation for next year – there is no reason to doubt the steps we have taken forward this year.”
