It became clear on Friday morning that Hyundai’s drivers would have no part in the fight for victory. By the time the rally finished on Sunday, Toyota drivers had locked out the top four positions.
Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux ultimately ended up as Hyundai’s best finisher in fifth place. In addition, he collected two points from the rally-ending Power Stage and one point from the Super Sunday standings.
Fourmaux finished ahead of both his teammates: last season’s world champion Thierry Neuville and 2019 title-winner Ott Tänak.
“This is a positive thing for me this weekend. First of all, you need to beat your teammates, which we did this weekend, and it is positive for us. But at the same time, I cannot be happy about that,” Fourmaux summed up.
“It was a really frustrating weekend for everyone because we were expecting to be able to fight this weekend, and it was really, really difficult. But we are learning from this, and there are a lot of events coming up – all gravel now – so it’s going to be a different game.”
According to Fourmaux, Hyundai already has an idea of what went so badly wrong in the Canaries. Whether much can be done about it is another matter, given that the team has only one homologation joker left to use this year.
“We’ve got a few ideas for sure. We are working on it. Let’s see what we find. There are things which are achievable and some a bit less. So we need to find the best compromise,” Fourmaux explained.
The WRC season continues in just over two weeks in Portugal. Fourmaux has now dropped to sixth place in the championship, but there is a silver lining for the upcoming events.
“Portugal, the positive thing? I will have a better starting position if it’s dry. I just try to see the positives, you know,” Fourmaux reflected.
