Thierry Neuville describes the incident he had in Powerstage of Croatia Rally which led him to lost the first Hyundai's win of the season, but promises to come back even stronger after his mistake.
The Belgian driver started sixth on the road on Friday and managed to gain three positions in Stage 2 which means that he moved up from sixth to third overall. After Oliver Solberg's and Elfyn Evans's retirements on Friday morning, Neuville was fighting against two Toyota drivers, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari, for the lead of Croatia Rally. In Stage 3, he passed Katsuta on the classification and was just 2,7 seconds behind the rally leader Pajari. He ended Friday morning at the third place as Katsuta overtook Hyundai driver for 0,3 seconds at the end of Stage 4. However, Neuville did not give up and took back his second place in Stage 6 as his gap was at one second over Katsuta. It must be mentioned that Neuville won three stages on Friday and was the only driver from Hyundai who set the pace during last weekend. Moreover, he retained his second place at the end of Saturday morning, but Pajari was able to increase his lead over Neuville to 12,4 seconds. On Saturday afternoon, Neuville stayed out of trouble when many drivers got punctures in Stage 14. Pajari was among these drivers which means that he lost his rally lead over Neuville as he dropped two places and ended the loop at the third place. On Sunday, Neuville was managing his one-minute lead at Croatia Rally and was not pushing for the maximum points at SuperSunday standings, but the drama struck him in Powerstage when he went off the road resulting in completing the stage with a front right suspension damage. He and Martijn Wydaeghe were devastated after this incident as they lost their first win of the season and were very close in ending Toyota's domination in 2026. At the end of Powerstage, the Belgian crew were forced to retire their car and gave up on fixing it in order to return it back to the service park. Last but not least, Neuville remains seventh overall on the drivers' standings with 25 points and is just one point behind Sebastien Ogier.
"First of all, I would like to express my apologies to the whole team – everybody who works with me throughout the whole year", Neuville said.
"It’s a huge disappointment for Martijn and myself, we didn’t expect that but unfortunately the rally can strike even at the very last stage.
"We were driving according to plan, and our target was just to get through the stage, but unfortunately, we were surprised on that corner.
"I probably turned in a bit too early, and my first reaction was to open, and then the incident happened.
"It’s going to be a tough period for us but we have no choice but to come back stronger and keep fighting.
"We won’t give up and our time will come again".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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