In a thrilling start to the new 2019 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), Hyundai Motorsport participated in a high-octane charge for victory at Rallye Monte-Carlo with Thierry Neuville finishing in a close second place behind Citroen’s Sébastien Ogier.
The closest ever Monte-Carlo rally went right down to the wire with Neuville extracting maximum performance from his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC alongside co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul. After 300km, just 2.2-seconds separated the top-two, a sensational start to a new championship. This second place represents the Belgian crew’s best Monte Carlo result.
#WRC First rally, first podium! ?? @thierryneuville @nicolasgilsoul #HMSGOfficial #RallyeMonteCarlo pic.twitter.com/mXXxe8IFjV
— Hyundai Motorsport (@HMSGOfficial) January 27, 2019
“What an incredibly close fight! We can be pleased with this result, which gets our 2019 campaign off to a very positive start”, Neuville said
“Of course, when you are in with a chance of fighting for Monte-Carlo victory, you want to push for it but it wasn’t to be on this occasion. We gave it everything we had but a small mistake on Friday cost us the lead and we weren’t quite able to catch it back. That’s part of the game. We enjoyed the weekend a lot even if it wasn’t easy. We can now look ahead to Sweden, where we will be second on the road, ready for another nice battle. Thanks to the whole team for a great weekend in tricky conditions at times.”
Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger-Amland also impressed during the weekend, pushing hard for a podium on Saturday morning, prior to their untimely retirement. It was an encouraging performance for the Norwegians with plenty of positives to take onto Rally Sweden.
#WRC Thank you #RallyeMonteCarlo – it was epic! See you next year! ? ??#HMSGOfficial pic.twitter.com/2Klj3vHxlm
— Hyundai Motorsport (@HMSGOfficial) January 27, 2019
