We have no doubt Hyundai would love nothing more than for Thierry Neuville’s rivals to be looking the tail of his i20 WRC in 2014. We just don’t think they quite imagined his tail would be all smashed up like this.
That’s the sad an unfortunate result of Neuville’s off in the icy conditions of SS1 at the Rallye Monte Carlo. Unsurprisingly, he was forced to retire from the rally.
Better results awaited Dani Sordo in the #8 i20 WRC and he managed to find himself in the podium positions, running in third. Sadly for him an alternator problem forced him out of the event.
After much hard work and high on anticipation Hyundai’s new era in the WRC was over almost before it began. Hard luck for them. On the positive side for WRC fans Hyundai Motorsport has already packaged up a YouTube video. On the negative side for Hyundai an amateur video showing Neuville’s car being winched onto a flat bed is also on the tubes.
After day 1 of the Monte privateer Bryan Bouffier in his M-Sport prepared Fiesta RS WRC holds a commanding lead over Kris Meeke (Citroën) and Robert Kubica (Ford). Defending champions Volkswagen have to make do with fourth (Ogier), seventh (Latvala) and ninth (Mikkelesen), but at least they’re all still running.