Neuville "can't wait" for WRC's return to Tarmac in Belgium
Neuville was victorious on his home round 12 months ago to record his fourteenth WRC win while it was the first time his new co-driver – Martijn Wydaeghe – visited the top step of the podium. Team-mates Ott Tanak and Craig Breen both led briefly, but once the 34-year-old got his nose in front towards the end of the opening leg he was to prove uncatchable thanks to a controlled drive.
“Ypres Rally Belgium, our home rally, is probably the event that we’re looking forward to the most in the season,” said Neuville, who currently sits third in the standings on 103 points – one shy of second-placed Tanak and 95 in arrears of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s runaway leader Kalle Rovanpera.
“I have got good memories from last year, and in fact previous visits when the event was part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. I can’t wait to get back. We are finally heading to Tarmac again after a run of tricky gravel rallies.” Tricky because he last podiumed on April’s Croatia Rally – itself a closed-road affair albeit one that has very different characteristics to this week’s event.
As well as points, there is also pride at stake for Neuville on home soil as he has struggled to properly gel with his i20 N Rally1 car on loose surfaces due to ride and handling woes as well as well-documented reliability gremlins. The former was particularly evident on July’s Rally Estonia where he came home in fourth position and on Rally Finland which yielded fifth place.
“We hope to return to winning ways in front of the local spectators, fans, supporters, and family members – we will certainly be motivated and ready to do our best,” he continued. “There is only one goal: to repeat our victory from last year. It won’t be easy, as the competition is so tough. We will need to make sure everything is on point if we are going to be competitive.”
There are still plenty of unknowns about the i20 N’s performance on Tarmac and also M-Sport and Toyota's Rally1 hybrid-powered cars as Ypres is only the third sealed surface meeting of the 2022 season. However, Hyundai’s interim team boss says the squad arrives in the Flanders region buoyed by Tanak’s recent triumph in Finland.
“The victory at Rally Finland showed that the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 is reliable, competitive, and certainly capable of winning rallies,” said Julien Moncet. “We also performed well at Ypres last year, with Thierry and Martijn leading an excellent 1-2 finish at their home event. Our pace on Tarmac during Croatia Rally was strong, so we hope to reproduce that same speed this weekend on a similar surface.
