Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe’s race weekend just ended will certainly not be one to remember. Yesterday, the last stage of the Rally of Portugal, the Belgian crew of Hyundai Motorsport first saw a deserved podium fade away, then was penalized with a 10,000 euro fine for an action not carried out and probably caused by the excitement due to the breakdown that made them lose third position.
On SS16 Neuville entered without power. The “stage mode”, engine mapping that pushes the i20 N Rally1 to its maximum during the stages, was not working due to an engine failure. As if that weren’t enough, the Korean car only had the first 3 (of the 5) gears available.
At that point Thierry and Martijn lost the podium and also fourth position to teammate Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport rider Ott Tanak. The 10,000 euro penalty imposed on the crew arrived at the end of the race, because WYdaeghe did not deliver the time card at the end of Special Stage 17, the 11.18 km Fafe 1.
According to the FIA sporting regulations dedicated to the WRC, if there is a lack of a stamp or signature at a check, the absence of a lap time record or failure to hand in the time card at each check, it means that the crew concerned is considered by the rally at that checkpoint.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Worried about the turbo issue in their no.11 i20 N Rally1, Wydaeghe was snapping a photo of the car’s dashboard to send to the team’s engineers and forgot to hand in his time card before Neuville pulled away from the inspection.
Wydaeghe admitted that he forgot to hand in his time card at the end of the test, an oversight caused by the pressure when he and Neuville were dealing with their car’s engine failure.
Given the circumstances in which the Hyundai crew found themselves, the stewards found their discretion by punishing them with a fine of 10,000 euros instead of a disqualification from the event.
Regarding the engine failure, yesterday Neuville stated that, in his opinion, this was generated by a human error during the Service: “It’s a problem related to the turbo, it seems that yesterday (Saturday) there was a small human error and we had problems immediately after leaving the Parc Fermé”.
“It was a problem that we couldn’t solve. We just tried to optimize the engine power somehow to get the most out of it, but it wasn’t much. The problem wasn’t related to the smoke coming out of the car on Saturday evening, because all the parts were changed and somehow, when new ones were fitted, a mistake was made,” concluded the Belgian.
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