NEUVILLE:I’MSTILL READYFORTITLE
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Hyundai driver and last year’s Rally Australia winner Thierry Neuville insists he retains the upper hand in the fight for this year’s World Rally Championship, despite losing the lead of the series to Sebastien Ogier in Spain last week.
The Belgian relinquished his grip on the WRC’S top spot – a position he’s held since Sardinia in the middle of the season – after finishing fourth compared with Ogier’s runners-up spot in Salou. Ogier’s return to the lead is, however, a double-edged sword – it means he will be forced to sweep the likely hot, dry Australian gravel roads clear when the series reaches its finale in New South Wales next month.
Asked who he thought held the upper hand ahead of round 13, Neuville told
“Not Seb [Ogier]. I think it’s better to be second and just a few points behind. It’s always difficult to say: if I get a problem he will be champion. But I think it’s not the most uncomfortable situation. The gap is small, it will be interesting.
“It’s time somebody else was cleaning the road! We’re looking forward to Australia now, it’s going to be intense and interesting.”
Predictably, Ogier wasn’t on the same page when it came to potential championship fortunes down under.
“I’m happy to be going there in the lead of the championship,” he told “It will be tough, I know it will be tough – we all know it will be tough. But it’s better to have the points in the bag, I always said this. Honestly, I didn’t really think to play the tactics – it’s impossible to think to drop time and drop points to take a better place on the road in Australia. But I’ve done it before [won from the front] and I’ll try to do it again.”