Review: Round 12 - Rally Chile

Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team secured a podium finish in Rally Chile as Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria finished third. Esapekka Lappi and Enni Mälkönen completed a solid weekend with sixth, while Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe crashed out on Saturday morning.

Rally Chile threw up a number of challenges for the crews from the first day, with changeable road conditions and tyre management coming into play. Strong consistent stage times – finishing in the top three in nine stages – kept Fourmaux in the mix throughout, with the Frenchman making the most of a puncture for Elfyn Evans two stages from the end to stand on the rostrum for the second straight event.

Damp roads on Friday after overnight rain made life tricky for the three Hyundai Motorsport crews, with the typical road cleaning effect greatly reduced and benefiting those further up the road order. Fourmaux started the event with good pace, setting top five stage times throughout the day, despite suffering a minor electrical issue on SS2. The Frenchman produced a solid afternoon loop to lie third heading into Saturday. Neuville struggled with the handling of his car amid the variable grip levels but bounced back by winning SS3. The afternoon was a similar story, but Neuville remained in touch with the podium fight, with Lappi having to make do with ninth after a difficult day.

Nursing a 1.7s lead over Sébastien Ogier and running an alternative tyre strategy, Fourmaux initially lost ground on SS7 and SS8 but delivered a super performance on SS9 to reclaim third place before service. However, the strategy didn’t quite pay off in the second loop, as front bumper damage reduced the aero efficiency and contributed to Fourmaux slipping to fourth overall after dropping 8.2s to his nearest rival. Neuville’s event came to a premature end on the first stage of the day, the Belgian rolling on SS7 after getting caught out by a compression. His exit, along with issues for two other crews in the morning, benefited Lappi who gained three positions in two stages. A clean, measured run for the Finn in the remaining stages helped build his confidence and consolidate a strong sixth place. 

Fourmaux started Super Sunday 10.7s behind Ogier, but, having cut the gap by a couple of seconds on SS13 despite a right rear puncture, it grew again after the first pass of BioBio (SS14) after a left-rear tyre puncture. A puncture for Evans on the penultimate stage then handed Fourmaux third place back, which he confirmed with a clean run on the Power Stage and third place in the Super Sunday standings. Lappi delivered another solid run on Sunday, claiming a top five stage time on SS15, en route to sixth overall.

Crew Notes: Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (#16 Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 

• Frenchmen claim fourth podium of the year, and second in as many events
• Strong pace shown throughout by the crew, who set 15 top five stage times

 Fourmaux said:

To be honest, we have no regrets this weekend, we tried everything to optimise the tyre package that we had; it didn’t pay off which is a shame because I feel like I can push a lot more in the stages, but the tyres don’t allow us. This morning I started to push hard and as soon as I did, we started to have some issues with the tyres, so it was quite frustrating. This has been a pure driving rally, with different profiles from Friday through to Sunday, and the fans have been amazing, so it is one of the rallies I like the most. Now we switch focus to Sardinia; I have always been fast there and hopefully it will be a good one for us.

Crew Notes: Esapekka Lappi/Enni Mälkönen (#4 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)  

• Fast, wider roads on Saturday helped Finnish crew to gain more confidence in the car
• A trouble-free run on an event where others hit trouble secured a healthy points result

Lappi said:

All in all, it is good to get to the end of the rally without having any issues with the car, no punctures so we collected some points which is a positive for us. Unfortunately, the weekend was quite difficult on the whole; the conditions on Friday were not easy and I didn’t have confidence with the car, so it was hard to be able to fight. Sunday was a bit more positive as I was able to push a bit more and get more confidence, but the damage was already done on Friday.

Hyundai Motorsport WRC Sporting Director Andrew Wheatley said:

Overall, it has been a positive weekend for the team. We didn’t start off on the right foot, with difficult conditions on the first two stages, but it has been a good fightback from Adrien who drove a very controlled rally through Friday and Saturday, before showing the true potential of the car on Sunday to secure a podium. We had hoped that more than third was possible, but in this instance, with some of the challenges we faced we have to be thankful that we have another strong result to add to our season. It was a really difficult rally for Thierry and Martijn who started in a controlled way and increased their pace as the rally went on. Unfortunately, on Saturday morning a small error had big consequences, and they were unable to restart on Sunday. For Esapekka, it was another difficult start to the rally, but over the course of the weekend, they found more performance and rhythm, and they finished in a more positive manner. Congratulations to Toyota on securing the Manufacturers’ title, our full focus is now to come back fighting and push to win the remaining two events.

Next rally 

• The WRC now heads back to Europe, with the technical challenge of Rally Italia Sardegna taking place on the weekend of October 1-4.