日: 2024年1月28日

The Hyundai i20 N star opened his 2024 FIA World Rally Championship title bid with a sublime performance in the French Alps, mastering the ice-patched mountain roads to head Toyota Gazoo Racing rival Sébastien Ogier by 16.1sec.

Neuville shrugged aside early engine issues before launching an attack on Saturday, overtaking both Ogier and his GR Yaris team-mate Elfyn Evans to storm into the lead with a slender 3.3sec advantage. A clean sweep of fastest times in Sunday’s final leg cemented his position ahead of the nine-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner.

“I don’t have the words, to be honest,” beamed an elated Neuville after finishing the final stage on the iconic Col de Turini. “It was just so great this weekend, I felt so comfortable in the car.

“The whole team was doing an amazing job and I think the whole package was working really well. There are always things to improve so of course we need to continue working, but we are very happy to win this rally,” he added.

Ogier led for a single stage on Saturday afternoon, but the Frenchman could not repel Neuville despite his best efforts. “It’s been a nice battle with Thierry. Well done to him, he has been really fast this weekend,” he admitted.

Evans held the upper hand after the first two legs but time ebbed away from him on Saturday, not helped by a hybrid unit problem. He eventually finished 29.1sec behind his team-mate Ogier.

Ott Tänak placed fourth on his first rally in Hyundai colours since 2022. Mystery engine problems hindered the 2019 world champion throughout the rally although a stage win on Saturday morning proved his potential with the i20 N car.

Adrien Fourmaux equalled his career-best result by finishing fifth overall in his M-Sport Ford Puma. Behind him was Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen, with Takamoto Katsuta almost three minutes further back after sliding off the road on Friday.

Yohan Rossel and navigator Arnaud Dunand claimed the WRC2 victory with a last-gasp Wolf Power Stage push, climbing to eighth overall in the process in their AEC-DG Sport Competition-prepared Citroën C3. The Frenchmen passed Pepe López/David Vazquez (Škoda Fabia RS) in the finale while Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3) rounded out the top 10. López/Vazquez got some consolation by claiming the FIA WRC2 Challenger win.

Jan Černý/Ondřej Krajča won FIA WRC3 honours in their Ford Fiesta Rally3, while Rallye Monte-Carlo regular Mauro Miele bagged the FIA Masters Cup win, alongside co-driver Luca Beltrame.

Round two of the WRC takes place in on the snow and ice of Sweden. The series’ only pure winter fixture is based in Umeå on 15 – 18 February.

Hyundai i20 N star Neuville was undoubtedly the man to beat in the morning. Having held third last night, he pinched second place from Ogier on the day’s first ice-patched speed test and stormed into the top spot before midday as time ebbed away from overnight leader Elfyn Evans.

Ogier seized control by reeling off back-to-back stage wins early in the repeated afternoon loop, but Neuville retaliated by outpacing the Toyota GR Yaris-driving Frenchman in the closing kilometres to carry a 3.3sec advantage into Sunday. 

With Rallye Monte-Carlo marking the debut of the all-new WRC points structure, Neuville’s late charge will earn him 18 points providing he completes Sunday’s stages. Ogier will receive 15 while Evans, who ended the day 34.9sec off the lead in third, gets 13.

“It was perfection,” Neuville said of his drive on Pellafol – Agnières-en-Dévoluy. “Everything went well and I really enjoyed the car – it was incredible.

“It was important to take the points tonight but we also needed to keep the car on the road. I had a good feeling, so I went for it and it seems like it paid off,” he added.

Ogier’s stage win at Les Nonières – Chichilianne was the 700^th of his career. That feat moved him ahead of Finnish legend Juha Kankkunen (699 stage wins) into fourth on the all-time WRC list of stage winners.

“I have been trying since the beginning of the rally, basically,” admitted the nine-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner. “This [final stage] was no different, but Thierry did a good stage. It looks like we need to try harder tomorrow.”

Super Sunday brings the opportunity for the top performers over the course of the final day to collect up to seven points in addition to the five bonus points also up for grabs in the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.

Evans completed SS10 with no hybrid boost on his GR Yaris. Even with the issue fixed, he could not find an answer to the sudden speed of his peers. “I don’t know what’s going on,” the Welshman admitted after yielding 16.9sec in SS12. “It didn’t feel great, but that’s chronic.”

Hyundai man Ott Tänak’s hold on fourth was strengthened as he pulled away from his closest challenger Adrien Fourmaux, helped by his stage win on Pellafol / Agnières-en-Dévoluy. The pair were split by over one minute at close of play, with Fourmaux doubling down on his conservative approach after seeing his M-Sport Ford Puma colleague Grégoire Munster off the road in SS12.

Munster’s demise allowed Andreas Mikkelsen to claim sixth in his Hyundai, while Takamoto Katsuta climbed up to seventh following his costly ditch excursion on Friday.

Eighth place went to Pepe López, who currently heads Nikolay Gryazin in a thrilling duel for WRC2 supremacy. Yohan Rossel is also involved in the support category scrap and completed the top 10.
Sunday’s final leg features three stages as crews journey south to Monaco. The trio add up to 52.12km before the rally finishes in the principality.