Hyundai Motorsport has completed a tough Saturday at Rally Islas Canarias, where its crews now occupy fifth, sixth, and seventh place.
Seven stages formed Saturday’s itinerary: two loops of Moya-Galdar (SS7/10, 24.09km), Arucas-Firgas-Teror (SS8/11, 13.75km) and Tejeda-San Mateo (SS9/12, 23.30km) were wrapped up by the first super special stage of the weekend, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (SS13, 1.80km).
Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team prioritised using Saturday’s seven stages to test various setup changes in a bid to find pace on the event’s unique tarmac roads, yet all three crews continued to struggle to get their tyres into the optimum performance window.
Adrien Fourmaux quickly claimed sixth position overall on the opening stage, leapfrogging both of his Hyundai Motorsport team-mates. However, his forward momentum then slowed as he was unable to close the gap to the cars ahead. Following an incident for Sami Pajari, Fourmaux inherited a place on SS12 Tejeda-San Mateo to end the day in the top five positions.
Thierry Neuville fell to seventh after SS8 Arucas-Firgas-Teror, but by the final stage of the day the Belgian had better balance in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, giving him more confidence to push. Neuville completed the day with a top-three stage time on SS13 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and in sixth place overall.
Ott Tänak’s morning was compromised after setup changes on his car went in the wrong direction, leaving him off the pace and down in eighth place. Further adjustments in mid-day service brought some improvements to his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car heading into Sunday’s five stages.
Crew Notes: Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (#16 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
- Fourmaux regained sixth place on SS7
- Crew completed Saturday in fifth overall
We are still missing some performance, but I was really enjoying this afternoon when the balance was ok on the stages. We don’t really know what to expect tomorrow; it will be a big challenge for us. Everything has to go perfect, and while there are a few things we could change, it is also a gamble. We are certainly going to try everything we can to score as many points as possible.
Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (#1 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
- Belgians found better balance in afternoon stages
- Third fastest on SS13 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
This afternoon went much better than this morning; we had a good balance with the car and I was starting to enjoy my driving. I think we’ve done a good job, and I’m satisfied with it. While we never stop hoping that we can make up more positions, realistically it will be very difficult to do that tomorrow, but we are going to go for points – there is still a lot to play for.
Crew Notes: Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (#8 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
- Slipped to eighth on the opening stage
- Promoted to seventh overall after Pajari’s retirement
The first stage of the loops was the most tricky today, but it was possible to slightly enjoy the second and third stages. The roads are really nice to drive on the inside of the car, although the story from the outside is quite different. We were blind testing some changes but the engineers had some good ideas, and step by step we were making some improvements.
Today we struggled once again to get our car to work on these technical and unique roads. Much like yesterday, we tried different solutions but clearly, we were still far from the front. The positive to take away is how the team and the drivers were all working together, pulling in the same direction to find a solution. The drivers showed they had a good pace, even if their speed was not of those in front of us, but they were matching each other with quite similar times. We will continue to work on the car for tomorrow, targeting a clean finish to the event, while also waiting to see if something happens that we can benefit from.
Sunday at a Glance
- Super Sunday’s itinerary features five stages covering a competitive distance of 58.38km, with only one final service in the morning
- Agüimes-Santa Lucia (SS14/17, 14.97km) and Maspalomas (SS15/18, 13.47km) are run twice, with super special Costa Canaria (SS16, 1.50km) splitting the first and second attempts.
Classification after Day Two
- K. Rovanperä/J. Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:22:17.3
- S. Ogier/V. Landais | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +45.2
- E. Evans/S. Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +1:08.1
- T. Katsuta/A. Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +1:43.9
- A. Fourmaux/A. Coria | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +2:09.6
- T. Neuville/M. Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +2:15.2
- O. Tänak/M. Järveoja | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +2:37.3
- Y. Rossel/A. Dunand | Citroën C3 | +5:45.9
- A. Cachón/B. Rozada | Toyota GR Yaris | +6:04.7
- J. McErlean/E. Treacy | Ford Puma Rally1 | +6:12.3