Hyundai has come back to earth

Fifteen days after the double during the Rally d’Allemagne, « épreuve à domicile » de l’équipe de Michel Nandan, Hyundai est redescendue de son petit nuage lors du Rallye d’Australie. Les i20 WRC however, all saw the finish at the antipodes, with Hayden Paddon taking the Korean cars in sixth position ahead of Neuville, with Chris Atkinson completing the top 10 for his return to the World Championship.

Hyundai's French Team Principal knew Australia would be difficult. “I’m happy to have all three cars in the top ten, explains Nandan. The i20 has never raced on Australian soil before, so it was a valuable weekend for us, preparing for the 2015 season. All three drivers were able to learn more about the car and we found some significant improvements to the over the three days. We must never forget that it is still a year of learning and we are up against strong, experienced competition. I would like to send our congratulations to Volkswagen Motorsport on an incredibly well-deserved title, and with a hat-trick. »

Thierry Neuville, seventh at the finish, wanted to retain the positive aspects of the Australian event. “We had a good final day. I had no reason to push hard, so we just tried to enjoy and change some settings between stages to find improvements on the car. It was a valuable rally for the team's first trip to Australia and I think we learned a lot. It's a shame we lost time on Friday after damaging the suspension when we hit a rock on SS5, but other than that we showed a decent performance here this weekend. »

Find the report from the Rally Australia, produced by our special correspondents, in issue 1978 of AUTOhebdo, available this evening in digital version, and on newsstands from Wednesday.