Neuville well rewarded despite losing victory in Croatia

An almost “consequential” road trip. This is how one could define Thierry Neuville his Sunday misadventures Rally from Croatia. In the running for the final victory against his runner-up in the world championship Elfyn Evans, the Belgian saw his hopes disappear when he made an error during SS18, which he had started leading the general standings with 2 “6 on the Welshman. Luckily, he was able to restart and was especially helped by the exit of his counterpart, in the same special!

On paper, he could have lost very big in the championship because Elfyn Evans had limited the damage completing SS18 to 9 behind the new rally leader, and later winner, Sébastien Ogier. But ultimately, Thierry Neuville also managed to restart, finishing 3^e just over 45 seconds from the Habs. In addition, the new points scale of WRC allowed him not to lose all his efforts, which rewarded the drivers throughout the weekend.

Arrival on Croatian soil 6 lengths ahead of Elfyn Evans, the pilot Hyundai has some always ready to bend the saplings. A blessing in disguise in the end. “ Even though we didn't finish as we would have liked, we were well rewarded for our great performances on Friday and Saturday, he pointed out. These are important points and although we didn't score many today (Sunday), we remained third best, tied with Elfyn, and we only lost one point to by Ott (Thank you).

SS18 was really tricky and I did my best to avoid an impact by braking immediately, but there was nothing I could do. I'm happy to still be in the lead and maintain the advantage, but Portugal (May 9-12) going to be difficult given our position on the road."

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