Thierry Neuville at the dawn of the most important day of his career

Five times vice-champion of the world rally in his career, Thierry Neuville had never been in the position he will be in on Sunday, at the start of the last day of the Rally from Japan. The St. Vith native needs just two points on Super Sunday and/or the Power Stage to become World Champion for the first time, regardless of his teammate's result at Hyundai, Ott Tänak. After a Friday that turned into a nightmare, the Belgian driver and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe climbed back up to end the day in seventh place, and score four points, which will be validated if he crosses the finish line of the rally on Sunday. When RTBF asks him if he has found his smile again, Thierry does Neuville and does not show an explosion of emotions!

“Average, I would say! It is clear that we would have preferred to stick to the same scenario as Friday morning, and manage our rally calmly until the end of the weekend. We know the circumstances, so we are dealing with them. Our goal was to get into the points, I was hopeful all day long of going for seventh place. So, we have already taken four of the six points needed. I think we had a good day. Obviously, I have everything to lose, so I had to manage my risk-taking today. Over the whole day, we were as fast as Tänak, who was only a tenth ahead, if not alone. Ogier was faster. I think we are on the right track, we have a good pace to attack Sunday."

"Fingers crossed is all we can do"

Fifteenth after having problems with his i20 Rally20 on Friday, Neuville managed to catch up with the entire WRC2 field, including the leader Nikolay Gryazin who seemed almost out of reach. He finally beat him by 12″2 at the end of this Saturday. For Sunday, the objective is not so simple, because he has to finish, but also secure the two points that would put him out of reach of Ott Tänak, even in the event of a perfect weekend from the Estonian. The first timed section of the day (Nukata 1, at 23:39 this Saturday, French time) will be crucial to know what pace to adopt on the other four special stages of the day.

“I’m going to do the first stage at my own pace and we’ll know right away whether we should always ride fast or whether we can ease off a bit. Everyone will push very hard tomorrow. Even if we only have to finish sixth today, we’ll have to ride at a pretty high pace. All it takes is a puncture on Sunday or something… We’re not safe, but it’s the same for everyone. We have to be optimistic, we had a big setback on Friday, which wasn’t easy to swallow, and it still isn’t. We would have liked to finish on the podium, and any chance of a good result has gone. We’ve still gotten closer to our main goal, the title.”

Leading the championship since his victory in the Monte Carlo Rally, Thierry Neuville is now just five stages away from absolute deliverance, or a huge disappointment. The Belgian is aware of this: "There is still a big effort to be made on Sunday, staying focused, it will not be easy. We have to keep our fingers crossed, that's all we can do."

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