The return to the podium
The 2nd place reached by Thierry Neuville in the Finnish Rally ended a negative streak of results that the Belgian driver of Hyundai had not achieved since the Rally of Portugal, the last one in which the current leader of the standings reached the podium with the third place. A position, the latter, that Neuville had previously reached also in Croatia, without counting the victory obtained in Monte Carlo.
The standings situation
In this way, the #11 has consolidated his world championship lead, rising to 168 points, 27 points ahead of Sebastien Ogier (winner in Finland) and with four rallies still to go separating him from what could be his first world title, as well as the first for a Belgian driver.
Finnish Emotions
In Finland, however, Neuville seemed closer to 3rd place rather than 2nd, at least until the sensational incident that occurred in the final stages of the penultimate stage, with Kalle Rovanperä’s accident that eliminated the #69 Toyota driver from the game just as he was unchallenged in the lead: “Good and consistent guidance throughout the day – explained the Hyundai driver at the end of the Super Sunday – the increase in pace in the last two stages made the difference with Kalle’s retirement. We managed to close the gap in the Power Stage, so that Ogier left Finland with just one more point than us. This weekend has been a rollercoaster of emotions for everyone, like the stages. There have been a lot of ups and downs and things have been changing all the time. The next stop is Greece, which is a challenging event. We will be there and, with more attention to this surface, we hope to make another step forward compared to what we have done in these fast gravel rallies”.
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