Hyundai Motorsport celebrates its first Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championships
The 13th and final round of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship took place over the weekend in Japan, with all three titles ready for the taking. Championship leader Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe entered the weekend with a 25-point advantage over their teammates, Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja. Joining them in the battle for Constructors’ Championship glory was Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen; the Norwegian crew hoping to consolidate valuable points for Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team.
Friday was a mixed bag for the team. Tänak led the field after eight difficult stages across the Japanese countryside. After two stage wins on SS5 and SS6, the Estonian held a 20.9-second advantage over the rest of the field. After his first stage win, championship leader Neuville suffered technical difficulties on SS4 and with just a short tyre-fitting break, there was no time to resolve the issue. Neuville navigated the remainder of Friday without a turbo and dropped out of the points. Mikkelsen was sat in a comfortable 6th position before a collision on SS5 ended his first full day prematurely.
“It’s not what we wanted from today,” said Mikkelsen after a difficult Friday, “our split times were looking promising, so we have everything to drive for on Sunday.”
Tänak and Järveoja were flying on Saturday and looked set for their third rally win of the season, solidifying this with two more stage wins on SS13 and SS16. Their gap on Toyota’s Elfyn Evans had increased to 38 seconds and 18 valuable championship points had been provisionally banked. Neuville and Wydaeghe had it all to do after their technical setback on Friday and charged through the pack to finish seventh place overall after two stage wins on SS11 and SS14. Mikkelsen and Eriksen returned on Saturday for the final three stages to support Hyundai Motorsport’s charge for the Manufacturers’ Championship. An 11-point lead and 22 points on the cards on Sunday meant it was still all to play for.
Tänak was feeling optimistic heading into the final day: “We’ve been on it all weekend so far and we will be again tomorrow: our main target is the Manufacturers’ Championship, and we want to achieve it. The Toyotas are very quick so we all need to give our best so we can hopefully bring it home.”
Sunday was judgement day for Neuville. A rocky start to the weekend and a redemptive drive on Saturday meant the Belgian crew required just two points over Tänak and Järveoja to seal the deal in the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ World Championships.
For the hopeful Belgian crew, their fate was sealed earlier than expected. The crew of Tänak and Järveoja had led Rally Japan for 14/16 stages, but disaster struck on the opening stage of Sunday. SS17 saw the crew hit a damp patch and crash, causing rally-ending damage to his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid. The 18 points he’d worked so hard to achieve on Friday and Saturday would amount to nothing as a result of his retirement. This was bittersweet for the team. On one hand, Theirry Neuville would be confirmed as the 2024 FIA World Rally Drivers’ Champion, but it also meant the gap to Toyota in the Manufacturers’ Championship was too close for comfort.
Neuville and Mikkelsen jousted it out in the Super Sunday standings and held a comfortable eight-second advantage over the next-closest driver. Neuville earned an additional four points towards the Manufacturers’ Championship charge. Mikkelsen managed a fifth-place finish, but with one crew down, the fight for the Manufacturers’ Championship was lost by just three points. Tänak’s DNF also meant he would drop to third in the overall Drivers’ Championship after Elfyn Evans’ victory in Japan promoted him to second place by just ten points.
After being Vice Drivers’ Champion four times, Thierry Neuville took the glory for the very first time. After 11 seasons with Hyundai Motorsport, he and the team have built a solid working relationship that led him to 21 victories, 62 podiums and 380 stage wins.
On the dawn of his inaugural Drivers’ Championship, Neuville weighed up his year: “To be standing here as 2024 FIA WRC Drivers’ Champion is a dream come true. We have finished runners-up many times, but we never gave up hope that our time would come. I hope this is the first of many for us. I am so honoured to bring home this first drivers’ title for Hyundai Motorsport.”
Martijn Wydaeghe, Neuville’s co-driver for the last four seasons, is also Champion for the first time and summarised his emotional year: “We don’t quite realise what we have done. This weekend we showed that our best strength is our mental resilience. Despite a setback on Friday, we kept believing in ourselves and the team. All season, we have had our own strategy and it paid off – never giving up, focusing on a strong Sunday, and this made us world champions. Thank you to everyone at Hyundai Motorsport, both in the service park and back at Alzenau.”
Hyundai Motorsport President and Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul weighed in on his first titles with the team: “We started the season with one clear mission: to win the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championships. I’d like to say a huge congratulations to Thierry and Martijn on their phenomenal achievement in realising that target. I would also like to extend my congratulations and gratitude to everyone in the team for their efforts in this latest success for Hyundai Motorsport. Thierry wanted to do everything he could to help us in the Manufacturers’ Championship, even while fighting for his own. He is a worthy champion.”
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All results Subject to final FIA confirmation
