Thierry Neuville wins in Poland

After Corsica and Argentina, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) offers a third success in WRC this year, by winning the Rally from Poland. In struggle with Ott Tänak (Ford) ce matin au départ de la dernière étape, le Belge avait vu l’Estonien de M-Sport prendre l’avantage dans l’ES20 avant de partir à la faute dans le secteur suivant et to be forced to abandon. Tänak had lost all hope of success on this same rally in 2016, after a puncture in the penultimate special.

De quoi ouvrir la voie de la victoire à Neuville qui n’a pas pris de risques dans les deux dernières spéciales, ne prenant que la cinquième place dans la Power Stage, remportée par Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota). Le Finlandais devance dans cette ultime ES Sébastien Ogier (Ford), Andreas Mikkelsen and Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën) and therefore Neuville, these drivers recovering 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 bonus points respectively.

Thierry Neuville ultimately leads his teammate Hayden Paddon by 1’23″9, the two men giving the Korean brand a double. « I am very happy, comments Neuville. We have performed well in the last two rallies. Our main objective was to regain points on Ogier and we did it twice. Closing the gap is a good thing, but iit is still the man to beat.

Over the last five rallies, we had to fight until the last special. It was really very difficult. I was happy to finish the last SS a little more relaxed with a bigger margin. The end of the championship will be really interesting and difficult. »

Sébastien Ogier gets on the podium, having benefited from the setbacks of Latvala and Tänak, and precedes Dani Sordo (Hyundai). Stéphane Lefebvre took advantage of Teemu Suninen's (Ford) spin in the Power Stage to move up to fifth position ahead of the Finn.

Mads Ostberg (Ford), Elfyn Evans (Ford), Andreas Mikkelsen who passed Juho Hänninen (Toyota) for ninth place, complete the top 10. In the general classification of the WRC, Sébastien Ogier remains leader with 160 points ahead of Thierry Neuville, who returned 11 units from the French.

In WRC-2, victory went to Norwegian Ole Christian Veiby (Skoda Fabia R5) ahead of Pontus Tidemand (Skoda Fabia R5) and Frenchman Quentin Gilbert (Skoda Fabia R5). Eric Camilli (Ford Fiesta R5), who did not score points in the category standings this weekend, finished between Tidemand and Gilbert. Yoann Bonato (Citroën DS3 R5) takes fifth place in WRC-2.

Nils Solans wins the Junior WRC ahead of Dennis Radström and Nicolas Ciamin. Terry Folb fails at the foot of the podium.

Ranking Rally Poland

Find the full report and analysis of the Rally Poland, produced by our special correspondent in Mikolajki, in issue 2121 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.