The defending champion ran off the road during the morning loop. His approach speed to a hairpin turn was far too high, resulting in a crash that damaged the right rear suspension. The incident cost him two minutes to the leader.
Although Neuville managed to patch up his car enough to reach the service area, Hyundai’s mechanics restored it to full working order, only for Neuville to encounter trouble again on the very same stage.
A puncture struck, and Neuville went off the road at precisely the same corner as in the morning. By now, his deficit to the leader had ballooned to four minutes, leaving him in ninth place.
“Obviously a day to forget,” Neuville admitted.
“I made a mistake this morning, misjudged the braking with studded tyres. The target this afternoon was to see if I could catch back a bit of time, and maybe a position or two. Unfortunately we got a puncture three kilometres into the stage,” he explained.
“Not knowing very well the tyre we were hesitant to continue or not to continue. Finally, we decide to continue with the puncture. And then a small mistake occurred. I don’t call it a mistake, actually. Just the tyre went in that specific braking. Luckily we had done the recce this morning so we knew how to avoid any damage,” Neuville said.
The new Hankook tyres have generally performed well in Monte-Carlo. Drivers have mentioned the lack of experience with them, but the situation is the same for everyone.
“I’m obviously disappointed for the one mistake this morning but a puncture can happen to everybody. We have to analyse but I don’t know where we punctured. So I don’t think we got much information out of it because the tyre obviously is destroyed. Not much we can learn from that. Just trying to have a better day tomorrow,” Neuville concluded.
Climbing the leaderboard will now require some misfortune for others. Neuville might be able to catch Toyota driver Sami Pajari, but the gap to the rest is measured in minutes. Neuville also acknowledged that adjustments to the car’s setup are needed if he wants to challenge for Sunday’s Power Stage points.
“I wasn’t satisfied today. We did some changes overnight for the day. I couldn’t find the progressivity and the confidence I needed all day long. There was plenty of surprises. It wasn’t a fun day in the car, but we go back to something we used Thursday evening and see if I feel more comfortable,” Neuville planned.
