Wed 31 Jan 2024

VOTE: What is Thierry Neuville's greatest WRC win?

Thierry Neuville’s victory last week at Rallye Monte-Carlo was the 20th of his FIA World Rally Championship career. Of those 20, we’ve created a shortlist of five below. Now it’s over to you to decide which was the best.

Germany 2014
Neuville’s first-ever WRC victory came against all odds in Germany. After he and then co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul rolled their Hyundai i20 during shakedown, it took Hyundai’s mechanics almost 20 hours to repair the car. The duo even had to walk over the start ramp in Trier on Thursday evening on foot, but, thankfully, the car was ready to start the rally come Friday morning.

When Volkswagen drivers Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala went off the road, and Kris Meeke ripped a wheel off of his Citroën DS3, Neuville found himself leading the rally on the final day. He made it to the finish 40.7sec clear of his second-placed team-mate Dani Sordo to celebrate his maiden win.

Argentina 2017
Neuville snatched one of the closest FIA World Rally Championship wins in history at YPF Rally Argentina in 2014, beating Elfyn Evans by just seven-tenths of a second after overtaking the Welshman in the rally's last stage.

Split by just 0.6sec going into the finale, both drivers threw caution to the wind on the rough mountain tracks, and early split times showed Evans more than three seconds ahead. But as his grip lessened near the finish, Evans’ Ford Fiesta swiped a bridge and that handed Neuville a narrow victory.

Poland 2017
The 2017 edition of Rally Poland turned into a three-way fight for victory between Neuville, Jari-Matti Latvala and Ott Tänak. Latvala retired his Polo R with gearbox gremlins, which meant that Neuville headed into the final day just 3.1sec clear of Tänak.

Tänak made his mark, winning Sunday’s opening test to claim the rally lead. But, when the Estonian went off the road in the very next stage, Neuville was comfortably clear at the head of the field. He won the event by 1min 23.9sec ahead of his team-mate Hayden Paddon.

Ypres 2021
When Ypres Rally Belgium became a WRC round for the first time, all eyes were on Neuville – the only top-flight Belgian driver – to deliver. And deliver he did.

He led for virtually the entire event, fending off a fierce first-day challenge from team-mate Craig Breen. The Hyundai i20 duo then settled for a formation finish after three days and almost 300km of action on narrow Flanders farm lanes and Spa-Francorchamps race circuit.

Monte-Carlo 2024
In Neuville’s words, winning Rallye Monte-Carlo for the second time proved that the first occasion was not just down to luck.

Neuville shrugged aside early engine issues before launching an attack on Saturday, overtaking both nine-time Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier and the Frenchman’s GR Yaris team-mate Elfyn Evans to storm into the lead with a slender 3.3sec advantage. A clean sweep of fastest times in Sunday’s final leg left Ogier with simply no answer.