The Estonian said that if his partner, Thierry Neuvilleis “intelligent” in the WRC Rally Japan 2024he will have no chance of winning his second title, even if the South Korean manufacturer allows the two to fight. The drivers' and constructors' championships will be decided in the final round after the Central European Rally, with the Belgian unable to seal his crown.
He would have done it if he had been two units ahead of his teammate, but instead, their lead went from 29 to 25 points. This meant the title fight would be decided in the Japanese asphalt races, while Hyundai leads Toyota by 15 points.
The director of leaders, Cyril Abiteboulconfirmed that its drivers will be able to fight, but are also eager to secure their first team title since 2020. Even though Thierry Neuville has a significant lead, securing his championship is not a simple thing, and Ott Tanak He said: “I don't know what difference we can make, but we will do our best, although with this scoring system it doesn't make much difference.”
“It's true [un abandono puede cambiar las cosas] of course I guess it depends on how much Thierry wants it [Neuville]”, he continued. “If he is smart at Rally Japan and does a good job, then no one will have a chance, but we also have the responsibility for the constructors' championship. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, so we can't just focus on the drivers' title, we are also responsible for the team. »
The Belgian was on course to beat the Estonian last weekend to win the world title, before two errors during stage 12 dropped him to fourth place. Reflecting on what happened, the championship leader believes he has achieved his main objective, that of maintaining a comfortable lead: “If we look at our objectives before the test, we have fully fulfilled them all by starting with a big lead in the championship until the last but also to have finished the rally and scored good points on Sunday.
“So from that point of view we were successful, but we can be disappointed because we failed to maintain our lead,” he continued. . “If I look at the conditions we faced on Saturday and even Sunday, I'm not sure that on the last day, when the points are validated, I could have taken the same risks as the others.
“It's a comfortable advantage. In the worst case scenario we have to add six points, in any other scenario we are pretty good,” he explained. “We need to find the right balance [en el Rally de Japón] because we still have to fight for the constructors' championship, even though we have this third car with Andreas [Mikkelsen] who will do everything possible, we need to find a good balance between safe driving and good driving.
Whatever the result of the drivers' championship, Hyundai boss was relieved to have achieved one of his two main goals: “What we can say is that we are halfway to our goal, we have won a drivers' title, we still don't know which one, so we don't want to celebrate. We have accomplished our mission , so that's a relief and if not, let's see what we can do at Rally Japan.”
Do you want to read our news before everyone else and for free? Follow us here on our Telegram channel and you will not lack anything. All the information, at your fingertips!
