After the first day of the Arctic Rally, second round of the World Rally Championship, Thierry Neuville is in fourth place. The Hyundai driver still appeared to have problems understanding his Flemish co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe.
Only two stages were scheduled on the first day of the snow rally, but they were each 31 kilometers long. As Thierry Neuville had feared beforehand, the starting position turned out to play a decisive role. “The first few cars cleared the fresh snow off the road, so that the riders who were allowed to start later had more grip”, analyzed the Oostkantonner, who had to take the track himself.
His Hyundai teammate and former world champion Ott Tänak, who was seventh on the road with almost ideal conditions, did the best. The Est was 16 seconds ahead of Craig Breen’s Hyundai at the end of the day.
Neuville, fourth at 29.8 seconds, was not completely satisfied at the end of the day. “In the evening test I thought I had punctured for a while, which slowed me down a bit,” said Neuville. “The car behaves a bit strangely at times. I also occasionally have some difficulty in understanding Martijn clearly, so we still have some work to do in that area. ”
Also during their first collaboration, in the Rally of Monte Carlo, the communication between Neuville and Wydaeghe was not always optimal. Then it turned out that the intercom in the car was not optimally adjusted, but that problem would have been solved by now.
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