Double blow for Thierry Neuville: the Belgian Hyundai driver won the Rally of Greece on Sunday and took advantage of the accident of Frenchman Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) during the last special stage to move closer to a first world title.
Leading since Saturday lunchtime after being spared from problems, unlike all the other favourites, Neuville was content to control Sunday to claim his second success of the season, more than seven months after his victory in the opening round in Monte Carlo.
The Belgian, who had approached the Acropolis Rally under pressure and with only a 27-point lead over Ogier, who was nevertheless involved in a partial programme and who had contested three fewer races than him, now has a 38-point lead over the Frenchman, and 34 over his Estonian team-mate Ott Tänak (Hyundai), third this weekend and the new runner-up.
Ogier, who dreams of winning a ninth world title at the age of 40, which would allow him to equal his legendary compatriot Sébastien Loeb, tried everything this weekend to reduce the gap on Neuville.
But he first had a turbo problem on Friday during the last special of the day, losing more than two minutes and thirty seconds. The Gapençais then made up half of his deficit on Saturday and started Sunday very well with the best times in the first two specials.
Unfortunately, while going for broke in the final Power Stage, Ogier crashed, rolling and saying goodbye to Sunday’s points. The Frenchman managed to limit the damage, however, by reaching the finish to save the 13 points he had earned thanks to his provisional third place on Saturday night.
With three rounds to go in the season, the eight-time world champion, who will compete in all of them, will now have to achieve a clean sheet and hope for a failure from Neuville in order to hope to snatch a ninth crown.
The Belgian, five-time vice-world champion, is now very close to finally winning his first title at the age of 36.
“We followed our targets all weekend and it paid off. The car worked perfectly so I have to thank the team,” he said after his 21st WRC win.
In the constructors’ standings, Hyundai also achieved a superb operation with a hat-trick in Greece thanks to Neuville, the Spaniard Daniel Sordo and Tänak.
The drivers now have a date in less than three weeks in Chile for the penultimate round of the season, before the Central Europe Rally in mid-October and the finale in Japan in mid-November.
nb/zub
