Thierry Neuville disagrees with Hyundai's decision to withdraw Ott Tanak's car at Rally Poland three days ago saying that it was mistake while he believes that it would be great chance for the team to try some new things.
Tanak was forced to retire at the end of Stage 2 as he collided with a deer on the opening stage of Friday which had as a result his i20N suffered from a terminal damage. In addition to that, the car #8 had a new engine for Rally Poland and Tanak did not want to make some repairs on the road section after the end of SS2 in case of doing further damage to the engine, thus he and Martin Jarveoja had to retire for the rest of Friday. However, their mechanics were able to fix their car for Saturday and restarted under the SuperRally regulations which means that they received time penalties for their restart and had to open the road. In Stage 12, Tanak reported an engine issue after the end of the superspecial stage at Mikolajki Arena and Hyundai confirmed that the Estonians would not go any further meaning that they retired twice during Rally Poland, but their statement was that the crew would like to focus more on Sunday. Their rally began on Sunday where he and Jarveoja topped the SuperSunday standings and scored seven points for the championship plus four points from Powerstage.
“It was definitely not a help for us, that's for sure", Neuville said when he was asked about the decision to retire Tanak.
"I mean, each car you can have in fun cleaning the road is an advantage, especially in a championship fight where every single point really counts.
"I think it was a mistake, but this is what it is.
"It could have been valuable kilometres as well for the car, trying different things without any question".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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