How Hyundai's home hero delivered overdue WRC success in Belgium

Recent World Rally Championship events have resembled the hit movie Groundhog Day for Hyundai; a constantly recurring theme of bright starts only for disaster to unfold. But in Belgium, for once, everything went to script for Thierry Neuville and Hyundai.

Local heroes Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe produced an Ypres Rally masterclass to record a memorable WRC win on the event’s championship debut. It was Neuville’s first victory since the 2020 Monte Carlo Rally, and Hyundai ended its drought in style as Craig Breen completed a 1-2.

Pressure had been mounting on a Hyundai squad without a win since Ott Tanak’s triumph at February’s Arctic Rally Finland. To make matters worse, reliability woes and misfortune had kiboshed likely victories in the previous four rallies in Portugal, Italy, Kenya and Estonia, allowing rival Toyota to gallop into a healthy lead in both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships. In a bid to end its run of poor form, Hyundai adopted an even more thorough “no stone left unturned” preparation, according to team boss Andrea Adamo. Even Neuville elected to use an extra pre-event test day to ensure he’d done his homework on roads he knows well.

If anything, it only added to the pressure to deliver, Hyundai equipped with Ypres specialists and former event winners Neuville and Breen. Both were armed with expert knowledge of the region’s famous narrow, fast, country asphalt roads lined by perilously deep ditches, and punctuated by tight junctions. “To be here is nice, we have drivers that have won the event in the past, but mamma mia it’s a lot of pressure,” said Adamo. Neuville knew he had an advantage up his sleeve, stating: “If I can benefit from that [my knowledge] I should have the upper hand. I know what is our target and what to do.”

Thierry Neuville, Hyundai Motorsport

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Such was the premium on experience of Ypres’s unpredictable varying-grip-level roads, even seven-time champion and points leader Sebastien Ogier sought advice from an unlikely Ypres specialist in the form of ex-factory Citroen driver Stephane Lefebvre. The 53-time WRC rally winner had his concerns – punctures were a “high risk” according to the Frenchman after seeing the cuts on recce he predicted would wreak havoc with the new-for-2021 Pirelli tyres.

The theory that Ypres is a specialist event where experience is king was rammed home by the end of the opening day as crews ventured out of the service park in the centre of historic Ypres. Hyundai once again came out of the blocks fast, with its i20s lighting up the timing screens, but it wasn’t the home hero at the top of the timesheets. Tanak won the opening stage, while Breen took the next two, but Neuville was second in all three after helping clean the muddy roads.

If tight junctions didn’t catch drivers out, Ypres’s ditches did, claiming another two victims on stage 10. First it was Pierre-Louis Loubet, and then Takamoto Katsuta in spectacular fashion

It wasn’t long before he struck to win stage four, the victory arriving despite an issue with a key piece of apparatus - his glasses. "I was fighting like hell with my glasses – they were slipping all the time!” said Neuville. “I need to correct that for the next stage.”

It would prove to be a drama-filled stage as Ogier’s puncture prediction came true, costing him time. “We knew it, we don’t have tyres strong enough for the WRC, it's a lottery,” he said. But it was M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux who found out how hard the stages can bite. The rising star misjudged the grip on a high-speed left hander and ran wide into a ditch, which triggered a violent series of pirouettes, inflicting heavy damage on his Fiesta.

It was game over for the Frenchman, who had won many fans for his efforts to raise money for Belgians affected by the recent floods that have ravaged parts of the country. “I had it in my pace notes as a flat corner,” said Fourmaux. “But there was some dirt and we oversteered a bit and then we hit something in a ditch. It was over.” M-Sport’s day was further compounded when Gus Greensmith became stranded in a ditch after sliding off the road on cold tyres, 200 metres into stage four. He would return to action on Saturday under restart rules.

Adrien Fourmaux, Renaud Jamoul, M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC

Photo by: M-Sport

Neuville hit his stride in the afternoon to sweep the next three stages, which wrapped up the opening day, with organisers forced to cancel the day’s last test due to concerns over spectator safety. Although disappointed to miss out on the stage, Neuville could tick off day one of his plan with a 7.6s lead over Breen, while Tanak completed a 1-2-3 for Hyundai. “At the end we were able to get it up to seven seconds which is not too bad,” said Neuville. “It was probably a good decision [to cancel the stage] but I was waiting for that stage, I like that stage.”

In contrast, Toyota struggled for pace, with Kalle Rovanpera the best of the rest and 32.6s adrift, but ahead of Elfyn Evans, Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta. There was plenty of work to do for Jari-Matti Latvala’s team.

Saturday started with a bang – quite literally for one of Tanak’s tyres, as the Estonian suffered a puncture, and that all too familiar sinking feeling was back. He lost three minutes changing the wheel, effectively ending his podium hopes. He rejoined ahead of second-placed Breen, next on the road, holding the Irishman up until Hyundai relayed a message to Tanak to let Breen through. A frustrated Breen still went on to win the stage and close to 4.8s off leader Neuville. “I’d be interested to hear what he would say if I held him up for that long,” said Breen. “He physically wasn't in front of me for a long time, but he was flicking up all the dust in the road.” Adamo said the order came through as quick as a possible, stating that “to send a message quicker I should be a future teller.”

The stage still had a bizarre twist left in it when an incident to be filed under ‘WRC’s strangest’ cancelled the test after the top crews had passed. WRC3 driver Pieter Tsjoen sent social media into overdrive by crashing into a house that lined the stage. Luckily driver and co-driver were OK.

If tight junctions didn’t catch drivers out, Ypres’s ditches did, claiming another two victims on stage 10. First it was Pierre-Louis Loubet, and then Katsuta in spectacular fashion. Katsuta, running with Keaton Williams as stand-in co-driver for the injured Daniel Barritt, emerged unscathed after they were caught out by a compression at speed. The Yaris flicked wide into a ditch and was sent into a series of wild rolls before clattering into a telegraph pole, which then fell and blocked the stage, forcing organisers to red flag the test. “Big crash, and luckily I didn’t hit the spectators,” said Katsuta.

Takamoto Katsuta, Keaton Williams, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Breen won the test once it resumed, following a lengthy clean-up, to put further pressure on Neuville, the lead down to 3.5s, but the leader would respond to restore a 6.8s margin heading into Saturday afternoon.

The Toyotas were finding their feet, with Evans taking the marque’s first win on stage 13. Hyundai elected to end its battle between Neuville and Breen, Adamo issuing “warm recommendations” to hold position. Breen’s victory hopes may have theoretically ended, but the part-timer was still enjoying driving a WRC car on a rally among his favourites. "Of course, the main target is to bring the two cars home,” he said. “But the other side is saying that Dikkebus test is a stage I've done so many times and I don't know whether we'll be back here again. I've got a big PlayStation in front of me, and I'm just trying to enjoy it.”

Neuville rattled off two more stage wins to head into the final day with a 10.1s lead over Breen. Toyota’s resurgence continued, with only 4.3s covering Evans, Rovanpera and Ogier, who picked up two stage wins, in the battle for the final podium position. But the trio were almost a minute adrift of the leaders.

"The feeling basically is relief to win the event – we knew everybody was waiting on us to win this event or at last finish on the podium, but our target was to go and win” Thierry Neuville

Despite the advantage, Neuville refused to think about victory ahead of the event’s final four stages held in the confines of the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit, following an early morning three-hour drive from Ypres. “They will be very different to the stages we’ve had so far, so nothing is done yet,” said Neuville. “We have to be clever, but I hope we can have a nice day.“

Neuville was indeed clever, and coolly navigated the Sunday stages that incorporated the Les Combes to Stavelot sections of the famous circuit, plus the famed Eau Rouge. The track’s rallycross circuit acted as the flying finish, where one relieved Belgian flicked his i20 into a series of victory celebration donuts in front of a bumper partisan crowd.

He’d delivered what the nation wanted, eventually beating Breen by a comfortable 30.7s for a pressure-lifting Hyundai 1-2. “The feeling basically is relief to win the event – we knew everybody was waiting on us to win this event or at last finish on the podium, but our target was to go and win,” Neuville added.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The feeling was echoed by an emotional Adamo: “I’m really pleased with the way my people have reacted and stayed together as a team. I know how much people in the company have been under pressure because it has been a tough few months, so it’s nice to be here.”

Breen backed off on the final stages after clipping a bank on the morning’s first test, which could have provided a late twist. But back-to-back podiums for the first time in his WRC career was just the tonic to boost his hopes of landing a full-time drive for 2022. “Honestly I have to thank the horrible Belgian summer where it has rained so much as the bank was actually quite soft,” said a relieved Breen, “because if it was normal this time of the year, for sure I think I would have stopped there.”

Considering his limited asphalt knowledge, Rovanpera impressed throughout, particularly on Sunday, when he leapfrogged Evans to third. Ogier had to settle for fifth, his worst result since February’s Arctic Rally Finland.

There was also a cherry added to the top of Hyundai’s cake when Tanak won the rally-concluding Power Stage to secure five bonus points, while Jari Huttunen overcame power-steering issues to win WRC2 driving the brand new i20 Rally2 car. In the end, Ypres Rally delivered a long overdue fairytale for Neuville and redemption for Hyundai.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport