“This showed Neuville has now stepped up”

When you’ve finished runner-up in the championship an astonishing four times in a row, the only guarantee is that if you keep doing the same thing, you’re going to end up with the same results. And I get the feeling that Thierry Neuville has had enough of finishing second, thank you very much.

I’ve learned many times in the past not to get too excited about one result, but this one felt different for Neuville – and I wasn’t the only one to notice.

Neuville is a sublimely talented driver, and confidence has never been an issue for the likeable Belgian, but last year he looked a little, dare I say it, intimidated by the opposition. Ott Tanak was strutting around rallies taking stage wins at will and, when Sebastien Ogier had a car that worked, there was absolutely no doubting who the boss was.

Yes, Neuville took a few rally wins himself but, quite frankly, not many around the service park were putting their hard-earned money on Neuville breaking his World Rally Championship title duck.

But that all changed and Andrea Adamo, the

Hyundai team principal, put his finger on it during the post-event press conference. His Hyundai i20 WRC hasn’t always been the easiest car to drive.

The balance has been problematical in the past and that massively frustrating issue of excessive oversteer was a commonly voiced complaint from many of his drivers. But since Adamo took charge those morethan-niggling problems have slowly been ironed out. The engine performance also seemed to step up a notch or two.

What Hyundai really needed was for their number one driver to step up his performance a notch or two. And that’s exactly what he did in Catalunya last year. Neuville has driven the shafts off that car in the past and achieved results that, quite frankly, shouldn’t have be possible. Committed as Neuville was though, something was still missing.

Did Catalunya last year change all that? Adamo certainly seems to think so. A stunning drive from Neuville, full of poise, confidence and self-belief, would appear to have been the catalyst for change that has been so elusive over the past few seasons.

And we saw the fruits of that change this year in Monte Carlo. Seemingly slipping away from the Toyotas of Ogier and Elfyn Evans by the Saturday lunchbreak, Neuville stormed through the remaining stages to catch and pass both Yarises and claim an emotional first Rally Monte Carlo win.

Revenge was the word that Neuville used to describe the job he’d done on Ogier this year after he was cruelly denied a Monte victory in 2019 by the narrowest of margins. It’s strong sentiment, indeed, but perhaps indicative of the new mood that now pervades the Neuville camp. He looks stronger than ever and he is quite clearly sick and tired of being the bridesmaid.

Is it Neuville’s year? It is way, way too early to tell, but on the showing of the opening event, my pre-season prediction that 2020 would be all about Ogier and Tanak would appear to be somewhat off the mark.