It became evident already on the first stage that Hyundai’s Rally1 machinery lacked the necessary competitiveness. Both Tänak and Neuville lost nearly 20 seconds straight away to Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä, who topped the timesheets on every stage of the morning loop.
By the time the crews returned to service, Tänak was down in seventh place and Neuville eighth. The gap to Rovanperä had already grown to over 40 seconds.
“How much?” Neuville asked upon hearing of his 45-second deficit.
The Belgian tried to find some positives in his morning.
“We got through the three stages. We had no technical issues, so that’s already a good point. But obviously, the speed wasn’t there, so we want to give it another try this afternoon,” Neuville said.
According to Neuville, Hyundai’s Rally1 car still needs significant development for track-like tarmac rallies.
“I don’t know where to start — the list is too long. We’re just going to focus on this afternoon and see if we can manage something to find a bit more speed. At least it will be a fight with my team-mates this afternoon,” Neuville said, referring to Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux, who was running fourth.
A moment later, Neuville offered a bit more detail but largely kept the root causes of the issue under wraps.
“We have understeer. It’s missing everything. So you can’t drive fast, you can’t attack. I’m happy to get through. I did a good job this morning with what I had, so I’m satisfied with that. Maybe one or two positions might be possible this afternoon, so let’s target those and see what happens,” the reigning world champion concluded.
Estonian star Tänak was equally tight-lipped in his comments.
“Generally, obviously we are not able to really find any balance in the car. The roads are still demanding enough. Currently, we are just working a lot with the front tyre, and that’s the easy story,” Tänak said.
This rally marks the first time Hyundai is competing in a tarmac event with the updated version of the i20 N Rally1 car.
“It’s (the problem) been there since the beginning with this car, and somehow we are not able to find a way forward. It was the same in the test and it was the same yesterday on the shakedown,” Tänak explained.
Three more special stages will be run on Friday afternoon after the service break in the Rally Islas Canarias.
