WRC
Neuville out of Saturday running after Rally Chile roll
Thierry Neuville’s Rally Chile BIOBÍO challenge suffered a major blow on Saturday morning when the Hyundai driver rolled on the opening stage of the day.
Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe went off 8.3km into the 15.65km Pelún test after running wide on a right-hander.
The Belgian clipped a bank on the outside of the corner, which launched his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 into a barrel roll.
Both crew members are OK, but the damage means the car will go no further on Saturday.
The incident ends what had been a difficult but increasingly competitive rally for the 2024 world champion.
Neuville started Saturday sixth overall, 27.4sec behind overnight leader Oliver Solberg, having struggled to find confidence in the car through much of Friday. He nevertheless produced flashes of his usual speed, most notably when he won the first pass of Hualqui by 1.9sec on Friday morning.
His afternoon was complicated by what he described as a small damper leak, and Neuville admitted at Friday’s finish that he had been unable to find the consistency needed to fight closer to the front.
The crash is another painful chapter in Neuville’s relationship with the Chilean event. He finished runner-up here in 2023 and fourth in each of the past two editions, but his first visit in 2019 also ended with a sizeable accident from which he and then co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul escaped unhurt.
Hyundai’s hopes now rest principally with Adrien Fourmaux, who began Saturday third overall, while Esapekka Lappi was ninth after Friday’s opening leg.
The condition of Neuville’s car will be assessed before any decision is made on a potential Sunday restart.
