Thierry Neuville receives a one-minute penalty, remaining 7th in Sweden.

After setting the fastest time on the last special stage of the day, at Rally from Sweden, Thierry Neuville was ultimately penalized with a one-minute penalty and a fine of 1500 euros. The reason: the Belgian had not properly fastened his helmet during SS15.

Faster than his pursuer Takamoto Katsuta, beaten by 1,1 seconds on the special stage, Thierry Neuville nevertheless retains his seventh position in the provisional general classification, with a lead over Jon Armstrong now reduced to 14,8 seconds.

According to information from DirtFish, of the " extreme weather conditions "mentioned by team director Pablo Marcos, would have prevented the driver from to feel that the jugular vein was not properly fastened ».

This sanction represents another blow for the pilot Hyundai, already hampered the previous day after going off the road into a snowbank on Friday morning. The Belgian had then lost more than a minute having to unfasten his seatbelt to clear his fogged windshield.

Before receiving his penalty, Thierry Neuville had nevertheless seemed relatively satisfied with his performance on the third day of the Rally Sweden, speaking to AUTOhebdo, who were present at the event. This afternoon, the conditions helped us a little. There were ruts, the car was almost like it was on rails. He explains. We were able to use the ruts effectively; they kept us on the road. When there weren't any, we really struggled and had to be a bit more cautious. So I tried to take advantage of the ruts, putting the car in them every time. Occasionally, we managed to set much better lap times than we'd had this morning or yesterday. »

For the final day, the Hyundai driver will now try to limit the damage and score some points, or even repeat his performance from SS15 to conclude a rally that got off to a bad start. That will be the goal tomorrow. I think we can pick up a few points, not all of them because it will be extremely difficult. The Power Stage is a special stage. We just set the fastest time on 50% of the special stage. We hope to do the same tomorrow. »

Interview by Pierre Barré, special correspondent in Umeå, Sweden. 

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