Thierry Neuville says his technical issues on Rally Mexico “are all part of the game” as he failed to challenge at the top of the standings.
Neuville had looked set to be battling for a podium finish on the North America event but he suffered electrical problems in his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC that meant he was forced to retire from the action on Friday afternoon.
He did however return to action the following morning and went on to win a total of eight stages across the rally to show that the car did have pace to compete at the front.
He said on his tough weekend: “In general, it has been a difficult weekend for Hyundai Motorsport. Unfortunately, we were caught out by some technical issues on the first proper day of the rally and that put us on the backfoot. It’s tough to take but it’s also part of the game in motorsport.”
“On a positive note, we have shown that the speed is there to fight for the victory. After our troubles yesterday we wanted to come back fighting, and we did just that with a strong Saturday overall. We had some competitive runs, including two more stage wins.”
“I tried to push as hard as possible. Together, as a team, we are going to work hard to avoid the sort of problems we’ve had this weekend, and to come back stronger than ever.”
The Belgian did however score manufacturer points for the team after teammate Dani Sordo retired completely from the rally on Friday and the Spaniard didn’t return to action. Hyundai sit second, 21 points behind arch-rivals Toyota.
