The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that his team did not have the package to win at Rally Chile, but their mission has accomplished considering the fact that they still lead the manufacturers' championship, and believes that the true potential of the i20N will be shown on the tarmac events.
The Alzenau-based team did the 3-4 at Rally Chile last week with Ott Tanak finishing at the lowest place of the podium and leaving his teammate Thierry Neuville behind in fourth position. The Belgian was struggling with his i20N and made some changes to the dampers at the end of Friday while Esapekka Lappi was out of contention due to a puncture and due to the fact that he lost the front bumper twice. In fact, he was forced to retire at the end of Stage 15 when he had an aggressive entry in a corner of SS15 and hit a cut resulting in losing the front bumper and damaging the cooling system. However, Toyota's domination was clear as Hyundai took only one stage win thanks to Neuville whereas Adrien Fourmaux set the fastest time in two stages. This means that the Toyota drivers were quickest in thirteen stages out of sixteen while they managed to cut Hyundai's advantage by 13 points on the championship, thus Toyota is now 17 points behind the Korean team with two rounds remaining until the season finale in Japan.
"This has been a very difficult rally for us, and a complete contrast to where we were at Acropolis Rally earlier this month", Abiteboul said.
"We didn’t have the package to win this weekend, and so we focused on the championship battles and avoiding the pitfalls we saw over the weekend.
"In that respect, it is mission accomplished, but we depart Chile with the gap we had built in the manufacturers’ standings now halved.
"It is imperative that we give our drivers a more competitive car for the last two tarmac rallies, where we hope to unleash the full potential of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid and rebuild our advantage.
"On a final note, I would like to extend my congratulations to Janne on a fantastic career in rallying, and wish him all the best in his ‘retirement’.
"He is a character like no other and he will be dearly missed by everyone in the team".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
Post a Comment