World Rally Championship points leader Thierry Neuville believes it was a mistake for Hyundai to retire Ott Tanak’s car after stage 12 of Rally Poland.
Hyundai decided to retire Tanak’s i20 N after Saturday morning’s circuit to prepare to fight for the 12 points on offer in Super Sunday.
The decision was made with Tanak already out of contention for Saturday’s victory and points after an unavoidable collision with a deer forced him to retire from the second stage on Friday.
Tanak rejoined the rally on Saturday morning as a road sweeper with another car ahead of Neuville and team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen in the starting order.
With Tanak absent in the afternoon stages, Neuville moved up one place in the starting order. The Belgian, who made a small mistake on stage 15, ultimately ended the day by finishing fifth, 0.1 seconds behind Rally1 debutant Martins Sesks, and lost two championship points in the process.
“It definitely wasn’t a help for us, that’s for sure,” Neuville told Motorsport.com when asked about the decision to retire Tanak.
“I mean, every car you can have fun with cleaning up the road is an advantage, especially in a championship fight where every point really counts. I think it was a mistake, but it is what it is.
“It could also have been valuable miles on the car, trying different things without a doubt.”
Cyril Abiteboul, team director of the Hyundai World Rally Team
Photo: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul explained the reason for the decision.
“The idea is that with the current super rally regulations we were so far behind that there was absolutely nothing to gain,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.
“We (Ott) started in the morning because we wanted to do a proper shakedown of the car after the repair.
“We also wanted to give Thierry a bit of relief by having an extra car doing a bit of cleaning in the morning when it mattered, but in the afternoon obviously the benefits are less, and it was very clear that, you know, nothing would happen that would really will help Ott in the championship or in the starting order for tomorrow.
“So when that’s the case, we prefer that the crew recover a little bit and focus on preparing for Sunday, because that has to be the biggest burden for him.”
