Rally Islas Canarias – Day One Report
- Hyundai Motorsport has endured a disappointing day at Rally Islas Canarias, where its crews are sixth, seventh and eighth after six challenging stages
- Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux all struggled for pace on the tarmac roads of Gran Canaria
- The team will try to bounce back from its Friday setbacks to claim as many positions and points as possible from the final two days of the event.
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Hyundai Motorsport has ended a testing first day of Rally Islas Canarias with its crews in sixth, seventh and eighth overall.
The brand-new WRC event got underway on Friday with six stages: two runs of Valsequillo-Telde (SS1/4, 26.32km), Valleseco-Artenara (SS2/4, 15.27km), and La Aldea-Mogan (SS3/6, 17.83km), split by mid-day service.
The smooth tarmac roads were a stark contrast to the difficult day for Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team, with all three crews struggling to find performance.
Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe and Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja did not have the balance or grip they needed for the demanding roads. Despite this, they remained focused on a clean run through the stages to safely complete the day. On the final stage, Neuville gained two places in the overall classification to lead the Hyundai Motorsport pack in sixth, ahead of Tänak in seventh.
Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria were the leading Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car for much of Friday, running in fourth during the morning loop. However, the French crew lost ground on the afternoon tests and complete the day in eighth.
Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (#1 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
- Belgians climb order from eighth in the morning loop to sixth after the final stage
- Crew remain resilient despite pace challenges
It is a struggle to find positives from today; it has been tough, and a hard one to swallow. It was difficult to keep our motivation high but we kept fighting. Martijn and I tried to work on the car between every stage, and we were able to gain two places. We are constantly improving bit by bit, and this afternoon with a bit of adapting to my driving style I was making it work, but we will need to fight for every position tomorrow and Sunday.
Crew Notes: Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (#8 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
- Estonians end Friday in seventh place
- Balance and grip prevented crew from finding pace
It is very difficult to enjoy the stages when you’re fighting so much out there, especially when you are down on speed and struggling to get the car working on these very specific roads. I think it’s a simple problem, but one that is difficult to fix. There’s not much we can do with the suspension or transmission, but we will try to find a way to be in a better position for Sunday.
Crew Notes: Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (#16 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
- French crew ended morning loop in fourth overall
- Difficult afternoon resulted in drop to eighth
This morning was not perfect, but it was much better than this afternoon. I made a change to the set-up of the car to try and find more grip, but it really changes the balance. I was struggling with understeer that I didn’t have on the first loop, and I started to overheat the tyres. It’s frustrating to see the gap to the cars ahead, so as a team we will try to move in the right direction for the next two days.
It has been a challenging day here at Rally Islas Canarias. We are certainly not where we expected to be, so there is a lot of work for us to do over the next two days to bring us back to where we should be. We need to adapt the car to a better setup for the tyres, as well as the specificities of this rally. However, anything can still happen in WRC. We will push to improve the car and to find a solution that allows us to attack, particularly on Sunday where there is a lot of points on offer.
Saturday at a Glance
- Seven stages are set to be contested on Saturday, with Moya-Galdar (SS7/10, 24.09km), Arucas-Firgas-Teror (SS8/11, 13.75km), Tejeda-San Mateo (SS9/12, 23.30km) run twice
- The day concludes with the super special Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (SS13, 1.80km), held in the Gran Canaria Arena basketball stadium.
Classification after Day One
- K. Rovanperä/J. Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 1:10:31.8
- S. Ogier/V. Landais | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +26.8
- E. Evans/S. Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +36.4
- S. Pajari/M. Salminen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +55.3
- T. Katsuta/A. Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +1:06.0
- T. Neuville/M. Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +1:13.3
- O. Tänak/M. Järveoja | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +1:14.1
- A. Fourmaux/A. Coria | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +1:14.8
- G. Munster/L. Louka | Ford Puma Rally1 | +2:11.1
- Y. Rossel/A. Dunand | Citroën C3 | +2:50.7
Contacto de prensa
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Elena Gris Mejías
Dirección | Head of Marketing
egris@hyundai.esJuanjo Martínez
Director de Comunicación
jmartinez@hyundai.esSantiago de la Rocha
Jefe de Prensa
sdelarocha@hyundai.esTeresa Carro Juliá
PR & Events Junior Specialist
