Thierry Neuville is being of the opinion that the rough profile of Safari Rally did not cause the fuel problem to his i20N and admits that Hyundai is going to analyze this issue, but at the same time he asks from his team to become more competitive in Kenya.
Neuville was in second place overall after the end of Saturday morning, but he was forced to drop to fifth on the opening stage of Saturday afternoon as he used the EV mode to complete Stage 11 and lost more than two minutes. Although he and Martijn Wydaeghe stopped their car immediately to fix it just after the end of SS11 and left from the stop control with full engine, the Hyundai crew stopped 7.7 Km into SS12 and drove in EV mode again, but this time it was more painful for them as they dropped more than seven minutes. Despite his fuel system problem and the rear right suspension failure on Saturday and Sunday respectively, he managed to increase his championship lead over Elfyn Evans to six points as he was second on the Super Sunday standings and took the five bonus points from Powerstage.
"They’re going to analyze, but somehow we weren’t capable of fixing it", Neuville said.
"At the end, we were running in a safe mode in the last stage, which allowed us more or less 60% of performance, I would say.
"So somehow we got through without too much trouble.
"It’s a shame we couldn’t get that information before Elmenteita because we lost seven minutes in there and that would probably have kept us in front of Elfyn.
"But it is what it is.
"We’re losing important points in the championship, that’s for sure.
"Four times in a row we got hit by trouble on the Safari.
"So, for sure it’s not very promising and it doesn’t give you the necessary confidence when you come to a rally like this.
"Clearly we know there are points to improve on the car, but with the current regulations it’s not possible to improve anything.
"I think that’s something clearly to review as well for the future, because if you want to have a competitive championship, you need to have competitors who are fighting and being on the same level.
"And clearly in Kenya, for four years it’s not the case.
"So it’s hard for the team to get it right because there are things we can’t change on the car and we have to work with it.
"But I also have to mention that the problem we face this weekend is not related to a Safari Rally".
Source: Dirtfish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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