Thierry Neuville believes that things are still open in the driver's championship having achieved his main target at Rally Estonia despite the problems he faced there.
The Belgian driver finished third at Rally Estonia despite the fact that he had a rear right puncture on Stage 4 and as a result of that he lost 8,2 seconds and he dropped from third to fifth position.
However, he managed to fight back in the next stages and he took back his third position.
Moreover, he received a 10-second time penalty as he was one minute late checking into the Stage 23, the penultimate stage of Rally Estonia, and as a result of that time penalty his gap with the following Sebastien Ogier decreased to 10,8 seconds.
This delay was due to the fact that Neuville and his co-driver, Martijn Wydaeghe, stopped on the road section between SS22 and SS23 as they had a problem with their i20 and they stopped to check it and to fix it.
"My main target was to finish ahead of Sébastien and Elfyn and I’m pretty much still in the fight for the championship", said Neuville.
"I am the one with the less challenges and everything is still open and that’s why I wanted to fight hard this weekend and stay ahead of them.
"We knew coming here that it’s going to be a tough weekend for us.
"I have never been the bravest on such fast rallies where taking risks is a major part of the race.
"Unfortunately, things didn’t start so well with a puncture in one of the first stages, which cost me 15sec, more or less.
"But I was able to fight back hard on Saturday and as well today [Sunday], increasing continuously the gap to Ogier and taking more Power Stage points than both of them".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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