WRC, Thierry Neuville triumphs at Rallye d’Ypres – archyde

For this great historic first, everyone was waiting for him and he did not disappoint! Faced with a very fit Craig Breen, Thierry Neuville did not give up and has just won the very first Ypres Rally – Belgium in the WRC! The Belgian offers himself a magnificent victory at home and his first success this season.

WRC, Ypres Rallye: Neuville winner, Rovanperä on the podium!

Craig Breen didn’t pick up his teammate at Hyundai and Thierry neuville made no mistake this morning. Here is what to offer (finally!) A happy ending to Hyundai Motorsport in this 2021 season. The Belgian driver triumphs at home and the Irishman finishes second and offers a superb double to the Korean manufacturer on this very first Rally of Ypres (Belgium) in WRC! A very special victory for Thierry Neuville and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe, native of the Ypres region.

This morning the event was “relocated” around and on the Spa Francorchamps circuit. The main interest of this last day of racing being the fight between the Toyota drivers for third place. Sébastien Ogier went crazy by touching a stone in the first special. This left more room for Kalle Rovanperä to get back on Evans, even though the young Finn was faster in the first inter than Ogier. In two specials Rovanperä took a bite out of Elfyn Evans and was at the start of the Power Stage with 5 seconds ahead of the Welshman! In the end, it was the Finn who finished in third place for 6s5 ahead of Evans. Another superb performance for Kalle.

In the Power Stage Ott Tänak achieved the best reference time among the “top” pilots. The performance of the Estonian, 6th overall and therefore first to pass before his main opponents, could not be matched. Sébastien Ogier took the second fastest time, 2s8 behind Tänak. Thierry Neuville takes 3rd time in the Power Stage, a great way to celebrate this magnificent victory!

Neuville therefore wins the Ypres Rallye 2021 with a 30s7 lead over Breen and 43s1 over Rovanperä! Evans is fourth at 49s6 of the Belgian while Ogier completes the top5 at 55s8. Tänak finished sixth, 3mins46 behind the winner. Rossel, Cracco, Kreim and Verschueren complete the top10.

Retirement for Oliver Solberg in WRC-2.

Already unlucky yesterday with the power steering broken throughout the day, Oliver Solberg is even more so today. For the first official outing of the Hyundai i20 N Rally2, the young Swede had everything to bring back a superb victory from Ypres. But this morning, fate was fierce: power failure at the parc-fermé, inability to take the start and definitive abandonment. It is his teammate Jari Huttunen who recovers the victory in WRC-2 and offers a success for the first rally of this i20N Rally2. Nikolay Gryazin takes advantage of the retirement of his competitors (Suninen and Kristensson did not start again this morning) and finished second while he has been in Super Rally since his exit in SS4.

In WRC-3, Sebastien Bedoret did not “appreciate” this Sunday at Spa. The Belgian collapsed following a transmission problem on his Skoda Fabia R5 Evo and even suffered a 10-second penalty in SS18 for a late score. The victory finally goes to Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3 Rally2). Pieter Jan Michiel Cracco (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo) recovers second place at 36s5 from Rossel. Vincent Verschueren (Volkswagen Polo Gti R5) finished on the podium ahead of Bedoret, very unhappy today.

Article published on August 15 at 1:20 p.m.