Thierry Neuville says that his expectations are not so high for Rally Latvia considering his road position, but at the same time he has been motivated to finish ahead of his title rivals.
The Belgian driver is still leading the championship with a 15-point gap over Elfyn Evans while Ott Tanak is 21 points behind his teammate. However, Neuville was set to compete in a Lithuanian round as a warm-up for Rally Latvia, but Hyundai Motorsport withdrew his entry after Ott Tanak's huge crash during his participation on an Estonian round. On the other hand, Esapekka Lappi had the chance to start a Lithuanian round and to gain mileage with his i20N before the start of Rally Latvia as his last outing was at Safari Rally Kenya four months ago. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that fast gravel rallies are not Neuville's favorite and that Rally Latvia includes nine stages which will be run only once making Neuville's work more difficult on cleaning the roads.
"Rally Latvia is going to be another challenging rally, and it is always more difficult when you are first on the road and the first to discover the conditions", Neuville said.
"We know the surface of the event is very similar to Estonia, maybe even a bit faster, but Poland has helped us to prepare for a fast rally after a series of slower, more technical events.
"We’ve been watching a lot of onboard footage from other championships to learn the characteristics, the itinerary, and start to get a feel for tyre choices and set-up.
"I’m mainly focused on my two main championship rivals and trying to take more points from them, but it will be difficult – the cleaning will be massive, some stages aren’t repeated, and a lot of fast part-time drivers will be there, so while our expectations are not so high our motivation is to finish ahead of our rivals is strong".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
Post a Comment