Hyundai managed to place two crews on the podium in Kenya for the first time, with Ott Tänak finishing second and Neuville third. However, the team’s long-awaited win still slipped away, as Toyota claimed the top spot once again, this time with Elfyn Evans leading the way.
Hyundai’s weekend was far from flawless, with all three of the team’s drivers encountering technical issues and various challenges throughout the rally. Neuville’s car suffered a broken driveshaft already on the second stage, and on Friday, he was forced to carry out repairs on road sections due to a cooling issue.
Hyundai had debuted an updated version of the i20 N Rally1 car at the previous round in Sweden, but for Kenya, the team reverted to the older-spec car. The reason was that the updated version had not been tested thoroughly enough in rough conditions ahead of Safari Rally.
Despite Hyundai achieving their best-ever result in Kenya, Neuville did not hesitate to speak his mind.
“I think it was a good move (to revert to the older-spec car). But nevertheless, again, some small issues which always come back year after year, and it should have been solved,” Neuville said, according to the official WRC website.
“So that’s frustrating, and I think we will have a good debrief and talk about that with the team,” the Belgian added.
Neuville’s week in Africa was eventful. The repair work on Friday ultimately led to the world champion suffering from sunstroke and dehydration, which kept him up all night dealing with the effects.
Still, Neuville pushed through and made it to the finish. At the end of the rally, he was rewarded with a strong result: third place overall and the second-highest points haul of the weekend – he scored 23 points, the same as Tänak in second.
Check the World Rally Championship standings here.
“If we wouldn’t have been rewarded for all that effort this weekend, I would have been really disappointed.”
“But again, it shows that rallying is the toughest motorsport in the world – and maybe one of the toughest sports (in general),” Neuville said.
