Neuville's weekend went wrong since Friday morning

Thierry Neuville believes that Rallye Monte Carlo did not start well for him since Friday morning, but he is being optimistic about Rally Sweden.

The 2024 WRC Champion was leading Rallye Monte Carlo at the end of Thursday after Sebastien Ogier's spin in Stage 3, but he dropped many places at the end of Stage 6 when he lost the brakes and went off the road resulting in damaging the rear left suspension of his i20N. On the second pass from Stage 6, Stage 9, he suffered from a front left puncture as he made a mistake on the same corner as in the morning. In Stage 10, he lost the power and had to reverse resulting in remining in ninth place and losing more ground compared to Sami Pajari who was eighth. Last but not least, he was not able to score Powerstage points and collected only one point from SuperSunday, but he managed to climb to sixth position after Takamoto Katsuta's and Pajari's crash in Stage 16.

"All in all it was a challenging weekend for us", Neuville said. 

"It went wrong from the braking in the hairpin on Friday, and then the combination of our road position and the conditions yesterday that didn’t favour us. 

"Yesterday there was less ice than expected, and cars were going faster on slick tyres – it was a difficult Sunday. 

"We can be optimistic about what’s coming next in Sweden; we will have a better road position and hopefully a better rally because of it, but we still need to make the most of it".

Photo Credits: Hyundai