At the end of Ypres Rally Belgium, Thierry Neuville wins his home event with Craig Breen and Kalle Rovanpera completing the podium.
Thierry Neuville claimed a dominant victory in his country and leaded the 1-2 of Hyundai almost throughout the event, but he dropped some time on Sunday. According to him, he said at the end of SS18 that he did not go fast enough as he was trying to avoid the cuts and the stones that were in this stage. The Belgian driver was the third fastest driver in Powerstage scoring three points in that stage.
Craig Breen completes the 1-2 for Hyundai Motorsport finishing in the second position in two events in a row. However, he did a mistake in SS17 and he went off into a bank and as a result of that he lost 7,6 seconds. Also, he was not pushing in the second pass of SS17, in Stage 19, as his gap from the third position was big enough and he did not want to make any mistake.
Kalle Rovanpera completes the podium and he stole the third position from his teammate, Elfyn Evans, at the end of Stage 18. The Finn driver set the fastest time in SS17, but he reported after Stage 19 that he had oversteer and that issue led him to go a little wide on one corner and to touch an armco with the rear side of his Yaris. Finally, he was the fourth fastest driver in Powerstage taking two extra points from it.
Elfyn Evans dropped from third to fourth position losing his rhythm in Stage 17 as he had a moment at the start of that stage. Finally, he lost time in Powerstage and he score only one extra point for the driver's championship while he dropped massive time in comparison with Ogier and thankfully he managed to finish ahead of the last one. Their gap is at 6,2 seconds.
Sebastien Ogier completes the top five and he was not able to fight with his teammates for the last position of the podium, but he set the second fastest time in PS and he took the four extra points from it. Specifically, he went slightly wide in the first stage of Sunday and he suffered from a rear left puncture with the tyre being completely off the rim. Moreover, he slided wide in SS19 and he went off the track limits and generally his Yaris was sliding a lot.
Ott Tanak finished in sixth position setting the fastest times in SS18, SS19 and SS20 leaving with the five extra points from Powerstage.
Gus Greensmith finished outside the top ten and he did not face any problem with his Fiesta today.
Pierre-Louis Loubet restarted today under the regulations of Rally2 after the crash he had on Saturday, but he had a rear right puncture in Powerstage and he stopped to change the wheel losing two minutes.
Takamoto Katsuta was forced to retire from the rest of Ypres Rally belgium as his Yaris was heavily damaged and the mechanics of Toyota were not able to fix it.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification at the end of race:
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