WRC – Hyundai Motorsport’s three crews have put in a consistent performance on the second full day of action at Rally México

Hyundai Motorsport has concluded the penultimate day of Rally México, the third round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), with all three of its crews safely through the demanding gravel stages with stage wins apiece.

Thierry Neuville was the highest placed Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC driver in fourth overall after a consistent, yet cautious performance. The Belgian, and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul, finished the day 46.5 seconds adrift of the podium positions, having started Saturday’s schedule in sixth place.

An unpredictable and challenging day covered nine special stages over a competitive distance of 138.37km – the longest day of the weekend. Crews negotiated a repeat loop of Guanajuatito (25.90km), Otates (32.27km) and El Brinco (8.13km) followed by two additional runs through the V-Power Shell Stage (2.33km) and the 1.11km end-of-day León Street Stage.   

For Hyundai Motorsport, the day was dictated by the fallout of the team’s double retirement on Friday as both Andreas Mikkelsen and Dani Sordo re-joined the rally.

Mikkelsen and co-driver Anders Jæger-Amland had the unenviable task of being first on the road, the perils of which were highlighted in the afternoon loop when the pair arrived at a closed gate in the Guanajuatito stage. Swift reactions from Jæger-Amland allowed the Norwegians to continue, but it epitomised another day of hard effort for the former rally leaders.  

Sordo and co-driver Carlos del Barrio, on impressive form prior to their retirement on Friday, also suffered as early starters on the dusty, sandy Mexican stages. The Spaniards recovered ground and returned to the top-ten as the day reached an exciting conclusion.

The two V-Power Shell Stages, held at Autodromo León, resulted in the team adding two more stage wins to bring its weekend tally to five. In SS16, Mikkelsen led Neuville and Sordo for a Hyundai Motorsport 1-2-3, before Neuville claimed the win in SS17, his second stage win of Rally México so far.  The final run, the SS18 Street Stage in León, saw another Hyundai 1-2-3, this time led by Sordo, ensuring all three crews completed a tough day with a stage win each.

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

• Crew moved up to fourth place after a clean, consistent, but compromised Saturday
• Stage win in SS17 (V-Power Shell Stage 4), the Belgian’s second of the weekend

Neuville said: “Our road position today has been slightly more advantageous with two cars running ahead of us rather than one, but it has still been far from an ideal situation. We knew we couldn’t do more in terms of our own performance, so we just drove and tried to enjoy the stages while taking care to avoid punctures. Yesterday we felt like we had no force to fight with the others, but today we were able to drive fast. After the morning loop we knew we were unlikely to catch any more positions, so we just watched to see what happened ahead of us. The afternoon was an improvement. Our car tends to respond well and perform better when the roads are more rutted. When the surface is harder, it is more slippery. We have three more stages to survive and see what we can salvage from this weekend.”

Crew Notes: Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio (#6 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Back in the top-ten after being forced to retire on Friday, ending the day with a stage win
• Spaniards fought valiantly in dusty conditions in their first WRC event of 2019

Sordo said: “We have done all we could have in some very tricky conditions. At times this morning there was a lot of dust hanging in places during the stage, which made driving that bit more difficult. We made some set-up changes during lunchtime service and I was happier with the car in the afternoon. Still, we struggled for traction with the hard tyre in the repeat of Otates, so it wasn’t easy. Seeing the performance of our colleagues has given us motivation to push, along with the fantastic support of the fans, so we will see what we can achieve on the final morning.”

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

• First on the road offered little opportunity to set representative stage times
• Norwegians led Hyundai Motorsport 1-2-3 in V-Power Shell Stage (SS16)

Mikkelsen said: “If there’s a time and place when you don’t want to be first on the road it is Saturday in Mexico – there has definitely been lots of cleaning today. Even considering that handicap, there are positives to take away. Our times have not been too bad and I have been quite happy with our performance overall. The result is gone but we’ve tried to enjoy the driving and to keep our motivation high. We’ve been able to explore some different things on the car for use in the future. The most unusual moment of the day came at the start of the afternoon loop when we arrived at a closed gate mid-stage. Thankfully we had ‘Anders the Gate Opener’ on hand to open the road in the most literal sense. It was one of those bizarre situations that perfectly illustrates the frustration of our Rally México.”  

Team Director Andrea Adamo: “I would summarise that Saturday was better than Friday, but was still not the sort of day that I want to see for our WRC team. The issues we faced, and tackled, yesterday strongly affected our performance today. All three crews were challenged with the task of road sweeping on stages that were incredibly dusty and sandy, which of course hampered any potential progress. We have to dig deep and to find the positives from difficult rallies like this one, to use these moments as a valuable character-building experience for the future. For now, we just have to focus on getting through this tough event as best we can.”

Sunday at a glance

• Three stages over a competitive distance of 60.17km will bring Rally México to its conclusion, beginning with the 24.38km Alfaro stage.
• The second stage of the day, the 25.07km Mesa Cuata stage, will feature a return to the roads of the notorious El Chocolate stage before heading south towards Guanajuato.
• The Las Minas Power Stage (10.72km) will complete Sunday’s action.

Classification after Day Two

Press release Hyundai Motorsport