Thierry Neuville explains the costly mistake he made in Stage 11 of Rally Sardinia which costed him his second win of the season with Hyundai Motorsport.
Neuville was fighting with his teammate Adrien Fourmaux for the lead of Rally Sardinia on Friday morning and managed to steal Fourmaux's first place for 0,4 seconds at the end of Stage 7 which was the final stage of Friday. Although Neuville started Saturday morning in a positive way as he was the fastest driver in Stage 8, Solberg was able to cut Neuville's lead from 14,4 to 3,3 seconds at the end of SS9 while the young Swede grabbed the lead of Rally Sardinia from Neuville for 2,7 seconds after SS10. However, Neuville was pushing in Stage 11 which was the opening stage of Saturday afternoon, but he pulled over his i20N after an impact with a stone. This incident happened just 1.1Km into SS11 and the Belgian crew were unable to continue as the wheel was off after losing the rear and hitting a tree. Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe set to restart under the SuperRally regulations on the final day of Rally Sardinia which will conclude the Rally1 era.
"We made a very unfortunate mistake", Neuville said.
"The plan was to fight with Oliver this afternoon and try to bring home a victory for the team.
"A few hundred metres into SS11, I saw a stone on the inside of the corner.
"I thought I was a little too close, so I opened the steering slightly, then closed it again, and lost the rear of the car.
"There was a tree, and I took the wheel off, so it was an immediate finish for us.
"I’m very disappointed for the team and can only apologise".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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