World Rally Championship title favourite Thierry Neuville believes the power issue suffered on Friday morning at Rally Japan isn’t mechanical but is unsure if it can be fixed.
Neuville’s WRC title hopes took a knock when his Hyundai i20 N suddenly slowed during stage four (Shinshiro, 17.41km) costing the Belgian 37.7s to title rival and team-mate Ott Tanak. The championship leader only needs to score six points this weekend to secure a maiden WRC crown.
Neuville won the morning’s opening stage to move to second behind Tanak before the issue struck demoted him to third, 40.2s adrift of rally leader Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
While third position would be enough to secure the title there isn’t a midday service in Friday’s schedule to allow Hyundai to thoroughly investigate and potentially fix the problem.
However, Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were able to conduct a quick diagnosis on the road section and are confident the problem is not mechanical or related to the turbo.
It is only the second time this year that Neuville has suffered a car issue after suffering a fuel pressure problem in Kenya.
“It came suddenly and the power just disappeared, so I have no clue,” Neuville told Autosport.
“It seems as though it is not mechanical so that is a positive thing. I’m not sure we will be able to fix it but the guys are working on it. We have a lot parts in the car this weekend, so hopefully we have what we need to fix it.
“For sure [we could carry on in road mode] but we will lose minutes. We checked the car on the road section and the turbo seemed to be fine so that is a good thing. Maybe it is not a lot or maybe it is.”
Neuville admitted that he was satisfied with the set up of his i20 N before the power issue struck.
“The car was feeling good and we actually took some speed out after the first stage as we were surprised by the gaps [between the drivers],” he added.
“I think we are already keen to focus on P3 for the weekend which would have been a good result but now it looks like it will be more challenging.”
A repeat of the morning loop of stages awaits the crews before two passes of the Okazaki Super Special stage concludes Friday’s action.
