The world championship leader punctured his right rear in the final stages of the third special stage of the African rally, after accidentally hitting some rocks on the edge of the road. Neuville continued in the hope of reaching the finish line without losing too much time, but unfortunately for him the tire exploded just before the end of the timed section.
The Belgian ultimately finished 19.9 seconds behind, but his i20 N Rally1 came out quite battered, with the bodywork literally torn apart on the right rear.
Before entering the last stage of the morning lap, Neuville and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe stopped along the transfer to carry out a repair to prevent too much sand from entering the cockpit. And to do it they also used a tree branch and a cloth.
The pair were then forced to wear protective glasses due to the dust that still found its way into the cockpit, but they still managed to reach the end of the special with a 48 second delay in the general championship compared to leader Kalle Rovanpera.
“Three or four kilometers from the end of the second morning stage we got a puncture and tried to continue as fast as possible,” Neuville said.
“Unfortunately the tire exploded 150 meters before the finish line and destroyed the entire bodywork, so for the last special we had to MacGyver a bit to try to survive in the dust, but in the end it wasn't as bad as we thought. we were waiting, and in the end we managed to continue without problems.”
“This morning there was an intense road cleaning activity, so the disadvantage should be minor from that point of view, but even in this case there are a lot of stones, so the risk of punctures is very high. Fingers crossed and I hope I can get through without any problems,” he added when asked about this afternoon's specials.
Neuville finished the morning lap just 4.9s behind title rival Elfyn Evans, who himself faced a difficult start, struggling with understeer in his Toyota Yaris GR, as well as a slow puncture on the first stage of the day.
“It wasn't the pace or the feeling we were hoping to have,” said Evans, who plans to make set-up changes in the midday assist. “It was a difficult morning.”
“The most important thing is the feeling behind the wheel and the set-up, the confidence in turning. I think everyone said the same thing, but it seems like I can't manage the situation like the others. We can improve, I think.”
“We will probably have to take some small steps to improve the car a little, but we won't revolutionize it during the lunch break.”
#WRC #Neuville #repairs #Hyundai #MacGyver #Safari
