Sebastian Ogier says World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville should “stop crying” and “learn driving first on the road” following an eventful opening day at the Acropolis Rally.
Ogier’s comments aimed at the Hyundai driver arrived after the eight-time world champion won three of the day’s six stages, starting second on the road, behind Neuville, having now emerged as the Belgian’s main title rival, just 27 points adrift.
Competing in a partial campaign this season, Ogier will now contest the remaining rounds of the season to boost Toyota’s manufacturers’ title hopes, and in the process challenge for a ninth drivers’ crown.
The Toyota’s driver pace on Greece's rough gravel roads put him into the lead of the rally at midday service over M-Sport-Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux with Neuville in fifth after the latter’s i20 N Rally’s engine was reduced to three cylinders.
It cost him valuable time but Fourmaux’s demise after stage four handed the Frenchman an 11.7s advantage over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak.
Ogier appeared on course to end Friday with the rally lead before his GR Yaris suffered a similar turbo failure that befell his team-mate, Elfyn Evans, on the opening stage.
As a result, Ogier dropped to fourth overall, 2m26.4s from the leader Tanak and 1m41.2s behind Neuville.
Ogier has in the past been vocal about the disadvantages of opening the road, but this season it is long-time points leader Neuville who re-ignited the debate in Latvia having led the championship since the opening round in Monte Carlo.
When asked about the turbo issue suffered by Evans and if the team had time to change the component on his car at midday service, Ogier offered some strong words towards his title rival.
"From my side I didn’t know [about Elfyn’s turbo issue] I just drove my race normally and was feeling quite good in the car until this moment and we did the best job we could," said Ogier.
"We proved that the championship leader is not that fast honestly because he was first on the road and we were second on the road and we took 45 seconds in four stages, maybe he should stop crying and learn driving first on the road.”
Toyota is yet to understand the cause of Ogier’s turbo problem but it could be similar to the issue suffered by Evans, who was forced to complete the final section of the opening stage and the following two morning tests in road mode. The Welshman, who also picked up a puncture in stage one, lost almost 10 minutes altogether.
“With Elfyn we know what is the root cause but with Seb at the moment we are assuming it is something similar, but until we get the parts we can’t say for sure. It looks like an issue with the turbo charger,” said Toyota technical director Tom Fowler.
“It’s a huge disappointment because clearly it is a rally after Finland where we have a really strong performance in the car, and in Finland we didn’t capitalise on that, and it looks like here we are not going to capitalise on the potential performance both the car and the drivers have.”
Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala is unsure if the failure is down to a faulty batch of components, but did reveal that the team were unable to change the turbo on Ogier’s car as a precaution at midday service as delays to the opening stages caused by accidents.
“This morning we were able to change the turbo for Elfyn Evans but we couldn’t change for Seb because of the time limit,” said Latvala.
“We were supposed to have a flexi service but because the stage was delayed on SS1 and SS2 it meant the organisers had to cut the flexi service away.
"Instead of having 12 mechanics working on one car we had six guys working for one car and we had other things to change. We had time for Elfyn but we didn’t have time for Seb and then it broke down.
“Of course Hyundai is in a strong position [1-2-3] going into Saturday, we need to stay patient because things can happen. If we have problems they may have problems you never know. But with this heat and this roughness it is asking a lot from the car.”
