Thierry Neuville thinks possibly that his mechanical issue on his Hyundai i20N was caused by a human error on Saturday's night service which led him to drop two positions on Sunday.
The Belgian driver was in third place overall at the end of Saturday and was about to give a fight to keep his position with his teammate Esapekka Lappi on the final day of Rally de Portugal. Nevertheless, the things did not happen as he thought due to the fact that his i20N appeared to have had a turbo issue which had as a result to drop more than one minute in all stages and eventually to lose two places. According to WRC+, his car might have carried a gearbox issue as well, because he was not able to change any gear higher than third. Finally, he stated at the end of Stage 17 that he had no power, but luckily, he finished fifth overall and did not drop behind the WRC2 drivers.
"It’s hard to give any clear details now but it looks like there has been a small mistake, a human error, during Saturday’s service", Neuville said.
"Basically, like you said, the car was smoking, they had to change a lot of parts on the car which was the plan and they followed the plan, but unfortunately yeah we think – but we can’t confirm yet – it’s human error which led to the failure on Sunday morning and it was done".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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