Neuville fails, difficult to secure first World Cup appearance this weekend

french Sebastian Ogier (Toyota GR Yaris) returned to the lead. central europe rally And Belgium’s title celebrations remained on hold. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20) is aiming for its first World Cup victory this weekend, but a poor start on Saturday caused it to drop from 1st to 4th place.

The world championship leader, who finished Friday at the top of his classification with a 6.4-second lead, lost his hopes of securing tomorrow’s championship to serious jeopardy after falling several circuits out of bounds within a minute. I realized that I would be affected. If he is not able to return on Sunday, he will have to wait until next month. japan rally.

“As soon as Neuville recovered from the first off-track exit on this morning’s stage on the German-Austrian border, he found himself back on the grass. The second outing was especially expensive.“He lost nearly 40 seconds as he struggled to remove his Hyundai i20 from a concrete drainage ditch,” organizers said in a statement.

Otto Tanak (Hyundai) briefly led the test after the first special of the day, heading into Sunday’s four-stage day 5.2 seconds behind Ogier.

With Saturday’s provisional points in hand, Neuville I gave up on 8 Ogier And on to the third one Elfyn Evansfrom Toyota, is currently in 3rd place with a 25.8 second lead. In addition, the Belgians lost 5 points in: Tanakhhis most direct rival in the championship race, and he needs two more than the Estonian to win the title this weekend.

Neuville He expressed his dissatisfaction after Saturday’s stage. ”I’m disappointedIndeed, but the rally is not over and tomorrow will be an exciting day. We paid the price. There was a misunderstanding of the results. “It’s a little disappointing because it happened so fast, but that’s the reality,” he said.