Hyundai will field World Rally Championship points leader Thierry Neuville and team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen in a national rally this weekend to prepare for the Rally Japan season finale.
The Korean marque is closing in on a WRC title double, with either Neuville or team-mate Ott Tanak set to win a first drivers’ championship for the team. Hyundai also leads Toyota by 15 points as it bids for a first manufacturers’ crown since 2020.
In order to prepare for Japan’s asphalt roads, which will host the 21-24 November title decider, Hyundai will tackle this weekend’s Rally La Nucia-Mediterraneo - an 11-stage asphalt rally located north of Alicante in Spain.
The Alzenau squad has entered two i20 N Rally1 cars for Neuville and Mikkelsen to complete the 128-kilometre event. Both drivers recently participated in extra-curricular national rallies in Austria and Italy prior to last month’s Central European Rally WRC round.
Neuville only needs to score six points in Japan to secure a maiden WRC title and deny team-mate Tanak a second crown, virtue of a 25-point lead over the Estonian who claimed the 2019 world championship with Toyota.
“It is a comfortable lead,” said Neuville, who won Rally Japan in 2022 but crashed out of last year’s edition.
“The worst case scenario is we need to take six points. In any other scenario, we are pretty fine.
“We need to find the right balance [in Japan] because there is still the manufacturers' championship to fight for and nevertheless we have that third car with Andreas [Mikkelsen] who will go for a push.
“We need to find a good balance in between a safe but good drive.”
While content to secure the 2024 drivers’ title, Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul is adamant his team has to perform to its best to seal the manufacturers' title in Japan.
“We will give full support to both Thierry and Ott as they take on the final round of the season, but we want to make sure we also finish strongly as a team,” said Abiteboul.
“The manufacturers’ title fight is still close, so we must as a team all be on our A-game in Japan to give Toyota the hardest time possible in their backyard.”
