WRC – Hyundai Motorsport is fighting for a sixth consecutive podium

Hyundai Motorsport has fought its way through a turbulent Friday itinerary at Rally Italia Sardegna with Thierry Neuville leading the team’s charge in second place overall.

With rain falling for the first stage of the day, all crews had to battle their way through tricky conditions, uncharacteristic of the typically hot and dusty Sardinian gravel stages.

It was Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team driver Andreas Mikkelsen and co-driver Anders Jæger who took the early advantage. The Norwegian took stage wins in SS2 (Tula 21.99km) and SS3 (Castelsardo 14.52km) to move into the rally lead by lunchtime service. Unfortunately a transmission issue during the afternoon loop, in the repeat of the Castelsardo stage (SS7), left the gearbox stuck in reverse, and forced an early end to the crew’s Friday.

Championship leader Neuville, as first on the road, knew he would face an uphill battle on the opening day. Alongside compatriot co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul, however, he took a stage win in SS5 (Monte Baranta 10.78km) and again in SS8 (Tergu-Osilo 14.14km) to move into second overall. A wild final stage of the afternoon, the second pass of Monte Baranta, saw the Belgians pick up some damage to their car as they ended the day 18 seconds behind Sébastien Ogier.

A day of perseverance for Hayden Paddon and Seb Marshall saw them safely through the day inside the top-six but lacking confidence. With rival crews experiencing issues, the Anglo-Kiwi crew will look to make headway when the rally resumes on Saturday morning with sunnier and warmer conditions predicted.

Crew Notes: Neuville/Gilsoul (#5 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Big push from first on the road enabled crew to take second overall on Friday
• Two stage wins (SS5/SS8) and a few setbacks epitomised a mixed day for the Belgians

Neuville said: “A challenging day, that’s for sure! Starting first on the road is never easy, irrespective of the conditions. The rain on the opening loop helped minimise the disadvantage, but we knew it would be a struggle. The car was working well, and I was pretty satisfied as we could fight for some stage wins and end the day second overall. We have had to be clever with our tyre strategy. It worked well in the morning, but by the final stage we had two new tyres left and opted to put them crossed on the car. Unfortunately, this created a big imbalance in the handling; the car was unstable and tentative with a lot of slipping. We tried to push hard but experienced some surprises. Tomorrow will continue to be hard but we’ll give it our best.”

Crew Notes: Paddon/Marshall (#6 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Top-six position at the end of tough opening day in evolving conditions
• Kiwi targets stronger Saturday in third WRC event of 2018

Paddon said: “We can’t be happy with our performance or results today. Whatever we have tried just hasn’t worked. Nothing has been clicking. We took a bit of a gamble this morning with the tyre choice, expecting it to dry out more than it eventually did. Tyres aside, we haven’t had the rhythm we need, nor the confidence to push. We have had little choice but to play the sensible game and get to the end of the day without having any issues. We are in the top-six but that is little consolation. We need to let the times come more naturally, and there are some things you can’t shake a magic wand at. We’ll sleep on it tonight and start again on Saturday morning.”

Crew Notes: Mikkelsen/Jæger (#4 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Two stage wins and a strong early lead of the rally in morning loop
• Transmission trouble in SS7 caused gearbox to be stuck in reverse, and ended the day

Mikkelsen said: “The ultimate day of two halves for us today. We started really positively and confidently. It was a great morning loop and we could really build a good lead. It was nice to show the results of the changes we had made to the car, which we weren’t able to demonstrate at the last rally. We wanted to keep that momentum going into the afternoon but it wasn’t to be.  An overshoot about 2km into SS6 lost us a lot of time, and then in SS7 we had some transmission problems, which left the car in reverse gear. The car was returned to service. We start under Rally 2 on Saturday but we’ve missed a good opportunity to assert our authority on this rally.”

Damage limitation

Team Principal Michel Nandan commented: “There has been a lot of action on this opening day of Rally Italia Sardegna. We’ve seen issues for many crews, unfortunately including our own. Andreas and Anders did an exceptional job this morning to get to grips with the tricky conditions, and to build an early lead. It was disappointing for their day to end as it did. We need to investigate further what caused the issue but the mechanics have fixed the car for them to restart under Rally 2 on Saturday. Thierry has done a solid effort to hold onto second despite being first on the road, while Hayden will surely bounce back tomorrow after struggling for confidence today. We saw this afternoon just what drama can occur in this rally, so I’m sure there is a lot more entertainment to follow on Saturday and Sunday.”

Saturday at a glance

• Seven stages will be held on Saturday over a competitive distance of 146.56km – the longest individual day of the event
• A loop of three stages – Coiluna- Loelle (14.95km), Monti di Ala (28.52km) and Monte Lerno (29.11km) – will be run twice, split by a shorter 1.4km test through Citta di Ittiri – Coros, just after lunchtime service.
• Micky’s jump will be one of the highlights of the penultimate day; the famous leap takes place in Monte Lerno, the longest stage of the rally.

Classification after Day One

Press release Hyundai Motorsport