Thierry Neuville wants to end his title fight as soon as possible and to avoid an internal fight between him and Ott Tanak, because the manufacturers' championship is also a priority.
The Belgian driver scored 15 pints at Rally Chile last week which came from his fourth place on Saturday classication, his fifth place on SuperSunday and his setting the fourth-fastest time in Powerstage. His main title rival is his teammate Ott Tanak who scored 20 points at the eleventh WRC round and their championship gap is now at 29 points with two events remaining until the season finale. However, the final WRC rounds are tarmac rallies which means that Neuville will have an advantage due to his road position, but still Tanak will start after him on the stages at CER. Both of them does not focus only on the drivers' title, but also on the manufacturers' championship as Toyota decreased its gap from their team at 17 points while the margin was at 30 points at the end of Acropolis Rally. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that Hyundai has managed to become a WRC Manufacturer Champion in the past, but Neuville is set to become the first Hyundai driver who will clinch the drivers' title with them.
"I think we have done what we needed in Chile and now we need to make sure that we can get things done quickly, because there is still a manufacturers’ championship to fight for and we need to be sure that, for Japan, we can fight as we should for the manufacturers’ title", Neuville said.
"We lost 18 points in Chile, so basically half of our advantage.
"For sure, there’s a fight between myself and Ott which is ongoing, and nobody will take the biggest risks.
"But obviously that shows that we lost some important points to Toyota.
"They brought many cars to Chile, and they will bring many cars to Central Europe as well.
"It’s important not to have an internal fight and to get things done to be ready to beat the Toyotas in the manufacturers’ championship.
"We need to have a good approach and a good strategy as a team to make sure that we don’t lose the manufacturers’ championship.
"It’s a little bit frustrating for sure, but at the moment I can’t do more".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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