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 its challenge for the 12 points on offer on Super Sunday.
The decision came with the Estonian already out of contention for victory and Saturday’s 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, acting as a road sweeper and with another car ahead of Neuville and team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen in the starting order.
With Tanak absent for the afternoon stages, Neuville moved up one place in the starting order. After a minor mistake on stage 15, the Belgian eventually ended the day 0.1 seconds behind Rally1 debutant Martins Sesks in fifth, losing two championship points in the process.
“It definitely wasn’t a help for us, that’s for sure,” Neuville told Motorsport 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 have been valuable miles for the car as well, 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 was that with the current super rally regulations and we were so far behind, there was absolutely nothing to gain,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.
“We started (Ott) 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 to do some cleaning in the morning when needed.
“But in the afternoon, obviously the benefits are smaller, and it was very clear that nothing was going to happen to really help Ott in the championship or in the starting order for tomorrow.
“When that is the case, we prefer that the crew recover a little and focus on preparing for Sunday, because that has to be the biggest burden for them.”
