Neuville cool on WRC title talk

The Belgian emerged from the incredible drama of Finland’s final day with a 27-point lead in the drivers’ standings over Toyota GAZOO Racing rival Sébastien Ogier, with four rounds remaining in Greece, Chile, Central Europe and Japan.

Neuville has been clear that his strategy is to focus on one rally at a time and he continued to remain cool on talk of a maiden title following his second-place finish at the fastest round of the season.

“I mean, we have been fighting for the championship until the very last round a few years back in 2018, and even in other years it has always been close,” he said. “For sure, a 27-point lead is not too bad, but there are still four rounds to go.”

Neuville’s title aspirations were boosted on Finland’s remarkable penultimate stage when Toyota drivers Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans both went off the road. After struggling to find a comfortable feeling aboard his Hyundai on Friday, the i20 N Rally1 driver left the rally having scored 23 out of a possible 30 points.

“It has been, for everybody, a rollercoaster of emotions this weekend, pretty much like the stages with lots of ups and downs and many things happening. For us, it wasn’t looking great, then it looked good, then not so good again. It was changing all the time and then obviously we were really surprised by what happened with Elfyn and Kalle.

“So far we have had strong results and, even on the tough events, we have been capable of taking lots of points on Sunday. We got away with it so far and we must be pleased with that.”