Thierry Neuville believes that he was not able to score as many points as he could at Rally Poland due to the fact that he was struggling with the new engine maps since the beginning and asks from his team to give him the chance to spend more time inside his i20N ahead of the two upcoming events.
The Belgian driver does not like the fast gravel rallies of the championship and this fact can be proved by his results. He finished fourth overall in Poland last weekend, but he was not able to catch Martins Sesks and to move up to fifth on Saturday, thus he scored only six points on that day. In fact, Sesks kept Neuville behind for only one tenth of a second at the end of Saturday. On Sunday, Neuville collected eight points which came from his fifth place on SuperSunday and from the fastest time in Powerstage. Generally, Neuville complained about the set-up of his i20N in Poland despite the fact that Hyundai had scheduled a pre-event test for its drivers before the start of the seventh WRC round. Rally Latvia is the next event, which will be held in two weeks, and it is not known yet if the WRC teams will test on the Latvian roads, but Neuville wants to gain mileage with his car ahead of the eighth WRC round considering the fact that he will open the stages again and Elfyn Evans decreased their gap to 15 points.
"On Saturday I missed two extra points by one tenth to Rally1 debutant Martins Sesks and on Sunday I missed an extra point by three tenths to Evans, so it is really frustrating" Neuville said.
"We came here with new engine maps, and I didn't feel comfortable since the beginning with it, so I lost some time.
"And I was cleaning the road, so a lot of things came together basically.
"I would like to do a private rally, and I will definitely ask my team for an opportunity to drive before the next rally.
"My last time testing in Finland at Hyundai's test base was on snow in February.
"The second last test was cancelled and the other one, was only for Andreas and Ott.
"I definitely need more seating time on those fast roads".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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