Last year in August, Belgium hosted an FIA World Rally Championship round for the first time where Hyundai´s Thierry Neuville drove to victory in front of his home crowd ahead of his then teammate Craig Breen. Neuville, who has driven the challenging Ypres Rally numerous times, is the early favourite of the rally this time as well.
For Toyota Gazoo Racing it was Kalle Rovanperä who was the best Toyota driver, finishing the rally in third while teammate Elfyn Evans was fourth and Sébastien Ogier, who secured the championship later in the fall, was fifth. Team boss Jari-Matti Latvala believes that Toyota will be better prepared to meet Hyundai’s challenge this time.
“Last year we didn’t have good test roads and we suffered a tad in the rally, this year, it’s been a different story. We’ve had good roads, we prepared much better and I think we should be more competitive this year. So it’s not easy in Belgium. Very fast Tarmac roads, a lot of junctions, a lot of cuts, dirt, but I think we are more prepared this year. Last year Hyundai was really strong but this year we should be able to really fight against them.” Latvala explained in an interview with DirtFish.com.
The Welshman Evans compliments Latvala and believes that the adjustments are better this time: “Obviously we haven’t got loads of experience there but obviously last year already helps, I think, to sort of understand a bit where we went wrong. So, yeah, hopefully, we’re a bit more right this year there.”
