Thierry Neuville and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe are 2024 WRC champions!
Thierry Neuville seemed condemned to second place, like Raymond Poulidor in cycling or Bob Wollek at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Born in 1988, this Belgian immediately positioned himself as one of the best rally drivers of his generation. Arriving at the highest level at the time of Sébastien Ogier's domination with his Volkswagen, he found himself from 2014 within a top WRC team (Hyundai).
Despite the rise of the Korean manufacturer in the discipline, Thierry Neuville never managed to climb to the top of the final podium in the championship (but five times in the second!). Very fast but sometimes sensitive to driving errors under pressure from the bulky eight-time French WRC world champion, Thierry Neuville also found himself caught in problems that many attributed to simple “bad luck” as they sometimes cruelly overwhelmed the Belgian . He also managed to beat his long-time rival Sébastien Ogier on points in the championship in 2019but it was the only year when Estonian Ott Tänak beat everyone to win the title!
This year, everything started for the best with a great victory at the Monte-Carlo rally before a solid and regular season, in which Thierry Neuville often finished placed despite his very embarrassing opening position. It was enough for him to score just a few points in Japan where only his closest rival, Ott Tänak, now a teammate at Hyundai, could mathematically keep a chance of victory. And precisely, everything changed on the first day of the rally : plagued by a turbo problem which dropped him to fifteenth place in the standings, Thierry Neuville was living a real nightmare. Was bad luck going to steal his dream again? Fortunately, he reacted perfectly. Coming back with a knife between his teeth on Saturday, he managed to collect valuable points which almost assured him of the title. In “maximum attack” mode with nothing left to lose, Ott Tänak went out alone which precipitated the outcome. The curse is finally broken!
Hyundai loses championship to Toyota
This outcome, worthy of a movie, still cost Hyundai the manufacturers' title because of Thierry Neuville's mechanical problem and, above all, Ott Tanak's retirement on Sunday. Toyota finally finished ahead of its big rival with a small three-point lead, having largely benefited from the intensity of the fight between the two teammates at Hyundai. Enough to give a bit of a bitter taste for the Korean manufacturer's team at this first title for its Belgian driver, even if it will be keen to take its revenge next year with the new Rally1 cars abandoning hybrid technology.
