WRC – Hyundai Motorsport is fighting inside the top-five at Rally Finland

Hyundai Motorsport has completed the opening day of Rally Finland, the ninth round of the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), with its cars involved in a close fight for the top-five.

The fifth consecutive gravel event of the season sees crews negotiate some of the fastest roads on the calendar where every split-second counts. Such were the times on the first full day of action that the top-four crews were separated at one point by just 0.6-seconds.

The itinerary covered a total distance of 126.55km over ten special stages, following Thursday evening’s opening Harju stage. The opening loop began with the sole running of Oittila (19.34km) before moving onto Moksi (20.04km), Urria (12.28km), Ässämäki (12.33km) and Äänekoski (7.80), which were all repeated in the afternoon loop. Friday concluded with a second visit to Harju (2.31km).

Hyundai Motorsport’s three crews were all pushing hard to get involved in the action at the front of the field, setting some decent times. Joining the Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team for Rally Finland, Craig Breen and Paul Nagle were immediately on the pace. The #42 Irish crew set a string of top-two stage times (SS4-6) in the morning loop to move into fifth place overall.

Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger-Amland also enjoyed a spirited start to the rally, claiming a stage win in the afternoon loop (SS8) to hold sixth overnight, just 0.4-seconds from their new team-mates. Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul opened their account on Thursday with a stage win at Harju but Friday’s loops proved a challenge for the Belgians as they struggled to eighth overall.  

The team will regroup and review the performance from Friday in an effort to find improvements with all three crews ahead of the longest individual day of the rally on Saturday.

Crew Notes: Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (#42 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• First WRC event for Hyundai Motorsport
• Strong stage times powered the Irish crew into the top-five overall

Breen said: “It has been an unbelievable day and it’s gone better than I could have ever imagined. I have missed the feeling of being back in the WRC so I’ve felt on top of the world. I won’t be completely happy until we’re banging in the quickest times but I have picked up confidence in the car as the day has gone on, and that is half the battle. I have not been getting carried away; my goal is to support the team as best I can, taking no risks. The Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC is probably the finest car I’ve ever driven and to get the opportunity to drive on these Finnish roads is something very special. The times have been incredibly close; it’s really testament to the quality of the WRC that one second in a stage can make such a big difference on timesheets. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Crew Notes: Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jæger-Amland (#89 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Stage win in SS8 (Urria) marked highlight of an encouraging day
• Top-six position with a moderate gap to the leading quartet

Mikkelsen said: “We’ve had a pretty good day and I’m happy with what we’ve achieved. The morning loop was clean and the times were incredibly close. I planned to ramp things up a bit in the afternoon, and we were able to take a stage win. The feeling inside the car has been really nice and it’s been highly enjoyable to drive. We’ve struggled on these high-speed gravel stages before so it’s nice to see our work taking steps in the right direction. I’d like to say thanks to everyone at Hyundai Motorsport who have worked so hard on the car for this event; there’s been no summer vacation there to get a perfect job done.”   

Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (#11 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Stage win in both Harju stages (SS1 on Thursday and SS11 on Friday)
• Missing performance and speed compared to rivals

Neuville said: “We started the rally in a very positive frame of mind and with a stage win on Thursday evening. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to replicate that during Friday’s stages. The feeling with the car itself was not so bad and we kept pushing hard during the day but we should have been able to set faster stage times. We have tried a number of different things but something hasn’t quite clicked yet. The rally is still long so we’ll continue to give it everything we’ve got.”

Team Director Andrea Adamo: “The positive to take away from today is that we have shown our car has made a step ahead in terms of performance on this type of surface. We are not too far behind the leaders and it is clear that the battle is very tight. At the same time, I have to say the improvements are still not enough so we have to see what more we can gain tomorrow. Craig and Paul have done a nice job today; their first time driving the car in anger during a WRC weekend and they are immediately on good pace, settling nicely with the team and are showing themselves to be in the game. I think this confirms that our selection for this event was the right one, and I look forward to seeing how all our crews progress on Saturday.”

Saturday at a glance

• A total of eight special stages will be contested on Saturday, totalling 132.98km – the longest individual day of the weekend
• A loop of four stages – Pihlajakoski (14.42km), Päijälä (22.87km), Kakaristo (18.70km) and Leustu (10.50km) – will be tackled once in the morning and again in the afternoon, separated by a lunchtime service.
• The Leustu stage is new compared to recent seasons and will be run in almost the same format to when it last appeared on the Rally Finland itinerary in 2014.

Classification after Day One

Press release Hyundai Motorsport