The new WRC scoring system has the power to hide certain situations that occur during race weekends and give very precise indications on the state of health of teams and drivers.
At the Safari Rally Toyota brought home yet another victory, achieving the tenth podium of the 12 available in the last 4 editions held (one was signed by Hyundai and one, last weekend, by M-Sport with Adrien Fourmaux).
Although Thierry Neuville left Africa not only as leader of the World Championship, but also with a slightly wider margin than the one he had created in the first two outings of the season, it is certain that the problems denoted by the i20 N Rally1 during the weekend have raised more than a few alarm bells in Alzenau.
Esapekka Lappi was betrayed twice in three days after the change. Thierry Neuville, however, was hit by a fuel system problem on Saturday when, after taking advantage of a couple of punctures suffered by Elfyn Evans, he had risen to second place in the general classification.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
The failure, which caused him to lose more than 10 minutes behind the leaders, caused him to slip from second to fifth place. Although he was the protagonist of an almost perfect Sunday, in which he took home 11 points out of the 12 available, Neuville said he was worried about the breakdown on his car, because it was not directly attributable to the conditions encountered at the Safari Rally.
“I don't have much to say, to be honest. It was clear that the car wasn't working and we couldn't solve any problems, so we continued the whole lap like this.”
“I'm very disappointed with the result, when you put so much effort into the work and preparations and you don't get the reward, and it's the fourth year in a row that we've been hit with problems. It's not a good feeling.”
“We fight and will continue to do so, but obviously we 'gave' 7 points to Evans and 5 to Tanak, so there are really a lot of points that we left on the road.”
“The problem we had was not related to the Safari and this is even more frustrating,” concluded the Belgian, who now leads the World Drivers' standings with 67 points against Elfyn Evans' 61 and Adrien Forumaux's 46. As regards the Manufacturers, however, Toyota is in the lead with 131 points against 127 for Hyundai Motorsport and 72 for M-Sport.
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