Thierry Neuville says that his championship hopes are over since he retired from the lead of Acropolis Rally, but now his target is to be victorious on the last three WRC events.
The Belgian driver was leading Acropolis Rally since the end of Saturday morning while he lost his first place over Sebastien Ogier at the end of Stage 7, but he managed to take it back in Stage 8. He headed to SS10 with an almost ten-second gap over Ogier, but he hit a hole on muddy section of SS10 resulting in breaking the front-right suspension of his i20N. He and Martijn Wydaeghe got out of the car to check the damage and eventually pulled over as they knew that it was impossible for them to repair the damage and to get going again on the next two stages. Hyundai mechanics fixed their car for the final day of Acropolis Rally and the Belgians were able to restart under the regulations of SuperRally, but they finished outside the top ten and scored zero points in Powerstage. After the end of Acropolis Rally, Neuville remains third overall on drivers' standings, but now his gap from the championship leader Kalle Rovanpera has been increased from 36 to 66 points.
"Luck wasn’t with us this weekend; yesterday, we were in control of the lead, had a good tyre strategy, and the car was working well", Neuville said.
"Everything was going perfectly until our suspension failure, and unfortunately that cost us a victory.
"I enjoyed the driving today, the car was feeling very nice, so that’s a positive to finish the weekend.
"This may be the end of our championship title hopes, but now we look ahead and target some victories in the final events of the season".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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