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Hyundai Motorsport WRC round 5: Rally Turkey.

Hyundai Motorsport has registered a double podium in Rally Turkey, the fifth round of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC)
Thierry Neuville finished in second place and took the maximum five Power Stage points, ahead of Sébastien Loeb, who claimed third overall - his first podium since Chile 2019.
Ott Tänak brought his difficult Rally Turkey to a more positive conclusion with four Power Stage points, as the team maintains second in the manufacturers’ championship

Hyundai Motorsport has concluded Rally Turkey with a double podium finish on a dramatic final day in which both Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Loeb picked up punctures on the opening stage.

With the longest test of the entire event - the 38.15km Çetibeli - run twice on Sunday morning, in addition to the shorter 6.28km Marmaris test, it was never going to be a straight-forward finish to the rally. However, issues for the crews during the opening run were not a welcome addition to the script.

Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (#11 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

Seven stage wins, including the Power Stage; Belgian crew’s first podium since Monte-Carlo
Puncture in SS9 saw chances of victory snatched away after competitive weekend

Neuville said: “I have the feeling we deserved to have taken more away from this weekend, but it is still a great feeling to be back on the podium again. We showed a strong performance and the car was working really well; we made some changes on Saturday afternoon and the speed was definitely there. Unfortunately, we were among the unlucky crews to pick up a puncture on the first stage today, which prevented us from taking the victory. Still, we fought back to take P2 and five Power Stage points, so from a championship point of view it was a good move. Even if we didn’t take the win, we did the maximum we could. I have to say thanks to the team for all their efforts.”

Crew Notes: Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (#9 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

First podium for Loeb/Elena since 2019 Rally Chile; their second for Hyundai Motorsport
Crew had led event on Friday and were on a charge for second place before SS9 puncture

Loeb said: “It has been a tough final day of this rally. The first stage this morning was a bit of a lottery and we didn’t get the right numbers! There was a lot of dust and I was driving carefully because I knew there was a chance of a puncture, and suddenly that’s exactly what happened. We only had ten pages of notes left so we decided to bring the car to the end, but I lost the tyre completely so had to drive really slowly. We were still in the battle for the podium. Our aim in the second loop was the get the car through safely and we were able to do that to secure third place - and a great podium finish.”

Crew Notes: Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (#8 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

Challenging weekend for Estonians, who were forced to stop on Saturday with steering issues
Four points secured with second fastest time in the Marmaris Power Stage

Tänak said: “Since the beginning of the weekend, it has been a very challenging event for us. Friday night, we had some demanding conditions, then on Saturday morning we had to retire with the steering issue. Today, we had to drive through the first three stages with a target of getting something from the Power Stage. I didn’t really have the full commitment to go flat out, somehow it was only at 90%, but we made it through and got four extra points which is much better than nothing.”

Team Principal Andrea Adamo: “It has been a tough rally and not the result we had hoped to score here, even if second and third places are not so bad. We had some reliability issues this weekend which shouldn’t happen and that has cast a shadow on our result. We have also had these ‘rally moments’ with punctures on today’s opening stage. My crews have done all they possibly could, and my thanks go to them. Our job now is to give them a better car for Sardinia.”

Next rally

The 2020 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) continues its modified schedule with a trip to Rally Italia Sardegna for round six
The gravel event takes place from October 8-11 and is a rally where Hyundai Motorsport has previously secured victory on three occasions - 2016, 2018 and 2019.