Hyundai tried to put Thierry Neuville in a better position with a team order at Rally Sweden. But a driving mistake by the Belgian on the Power Stage saw him fall back behind teammate Craig Breen.
Breen will not play the full season in 2023. In Sweden, the Irishman used his good starting position and led the overall standings from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening. With problems in the hybrid system, Breen fell behind Ott Tänak (Ford).
Before the final stage, Hyundai deliberately checked Breen in too late. This resulted in a penalty of ten seconds. As a result, he slipped back to third place behind Neuville. However, the gap between the two i20s was only half a second.
On the power stage, Neuville misbraked and lost crucial time. In the end, Breen was 18.7 seconds behind Tänak. A further 1.3 seconds behind, Neuville finally finished third.
Although swapping places didn’t work out, team boss Cyril Abiteboul is still convinced it was the right attempt. “I’m happy because we had three goals for the Power Stage,” says the Frenchman, for whom it was the second rally as Hyundai team boss.
“The first goal was the power stage with Esapekka [Lappi] to win. We’ve done it. We have worked hard to ensure that the car is in top condition for this stage. Then our goal was to have two cars on the podium.”
“We achieved that too and it’s a great result. Then we made life a bit difficult ourselves by trying to have Thierry a little further up. That didn’t work.”
“To a certain extent I think it was right from a team perspective if you want to fight for the World Championship. You want to give your drivers the maximum opportunity. We did that for Thierry.”
“The speed god wanted it differently”
“The Speedgott decided differently. But I like the Speedgott, so this result stands. Everyone is happy, including Thierry, who made a fantastic comeback after starting the weekend on the wrong foot for whatever reason.”
After two rallies, Neuville is third in the championship standings behind Tänak and world champion Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota). His deficit is nine points. Due to the driving error, Neuville did not collect any bonus points in sixth place on the power stage.
“I got off the line a bit. The gap to Craig was very small,” Neuville sighed in an interview with the English edition of ‘Motorsport.com’. “I tried to drive a good stage and collect bonus points.”
“But in the one corner where I had always braked too early all weekend, I was on the brakes too late. That’s where I lost the time. The goal was to beat Kalle. We were faster than him this weekend. That doesn’t mean anything for Mexico.”
With the long overall lead and second place, Breen reported back to the top field with M-Sport after the difficult second half of the season last year. The 33-year-old still has to wait for his first WRC victory.
When the chance to intercept Tanak was gone, Breen placed himself at the team’s service. After all, Hyundai gave him a new chance after 2022. “It is what it is,” he comments on the failed team order for the Power Stage.
“The plan was for Thierry to finish second. It’s clear for the team that he has priority so that he has the best chance in the World Championship. But that backfired. Nevertheless, we can be very happy that we have two cars have on the podium.”