Thierry Neuville experienced a very turbulent rally in Croatia with several setbacks – Crash on last special stage costs with luck not the podium
Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville clinched his third place at last weekend’s Rally Croatia in dramatic fashion. For his crash on the final power stage could have meant a late retirement instead of a podium finish with a little more bad luck.
As they had lost radio contact on the final stage, co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe had to communicate with Neuville via hand signals. In a right-hand bend, the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 went off track, landed front-first in a ditch and almost rolled over.
Fortunately, Neuville/Wydaeghe were not only able to continue, but actually defended third position all the way to the finish. Admittedly, the last kilometres had to be covered with two flat tyres due to the crash. But the lead over fourth-placed Craig Breen (M-Sport-Ford) was big enough.
How did @thierryneuville even hold onto 3rd after this major off on the Wolf Power Stage CroatiaRally WRC WRCLive pic. twitter.com/4CdiBRttAh
– WRC – FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) April 25, 2022
When Neuville was asked at the finish if he thought he would lose the podium spot at the last moment immediately after the off, he said, “Honestly, not. I knew there was a ditch at that point and had still tried to catch the car somehow. That didn’t work though. “
“But it looked more spectacular than it was. We got away with two flat tyres. Luckily, because otherwise it would have been difficult to reach the finish,” said Neuville.
Four time penalties and more penalties in just three days
For Neuville, the Rally Croatia was a turbulent one anyway. In the end, the crash on the power stage was only the final point in a series of mishaps. He and co-driver Wydaeghe received no less than four time penalties over the course of the three days of the rally.
After SS4, the Hyundai first had to be pushed over a distance of 800 metres into the service park because the alternator had failed. Because they reached the service park four minutes too late, there was a time penalty of 40 seconds.
At this point Neuville had only been 12.5 seconds behind the leader and eventual winner Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota). Following SS4, the second time penalty was handed out, this time amounting to one minute.
The reason was that the maximum permitted speed was exceeded on a liaison stage. Instead of the permitted 80 km/h, Neuville was flashed at 156(!) km/h. In addition to the penalty, Neuville/Wydaeghe received a fine of 1,900 euros and two days of community service.
After SS13 Neuville left the service park too late due to a problem with the hybrid unit of his i20 N Rally. There were ten penalty seconds for this. But even that was not the last time penalty. Because the service park ultimately had to be left without the drive of the electric motor, there was another ten penalty seconds.
Neuville’s conclusion at the finish: “It was a challenging and emotional weekend with a lot of ups and downs.” In the current 2022 WRC standings, Neuville is in second place, 29 points behind championship leader Rovanperä, after his second podium finish of the season.
