WRC 2016: Neuville wins in Italy, Volkswagen struggle
Hyundai Motorsport N driver, Thierry Neuville has won the sixth round of the 2016 WRC season in Italy. Ending a 22-month drought for his second WRC
By autoX Editorial
Ending a 22-month drought for his second WRC win, Thierry Neuville has now become the fifth different driver to win a WRC round during the 2016 season. The last time Neuville won a WRC round was in 2014 in Germany. The win is also Hyundai Motorsport N’s second win this season after Hayden Paddon won the fourth round in Argentina.
Neuville got off to a good start to get the lead in the early stages of the rally and had a sufficient 11 second gap over Volkswagen driver Jarri-Matti Latvala. But Saturday morning saw Latvala close the gap down to just under three seconds. Neuville managed to stay ahead of Latvala following the staged during the afternoon on Saturday. After the remaining stages on Sunday, Latvala conceded defeat to settle for second, 24.8 seconds behind.
It is the third rally that Volkswagen Motorsport has failed to win after dominating the sport since 2013-15. Championship leader, Sebastian Ogier was forced to accept third in Italy as being the first car out on the stage did little to help him. Ogier finished 1min 37.8 seconds behind Neuville but the final podium sport did not come easy to the three time WRC champion.
Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen were constantly closing in on Ogier in the early stages. But both drivers damaged their cars after hitting rocks, giving Ogier room to breathe.
Ostberg broke his driveshaft on his Ford Firsta RS M-Sport rally car which led his engine to fail. Whereas, Mikkelsen who suffered a damaed suspension was able to get back out on Sunday after his Volkswagen Polo R was fixed. Mikkelsen finished 12th overall.
The silver lining for Ogier in Italy was when he won the powerstage, despite the struggles when he had to reverse to get around a hairpin.
Hayden Paddon suffered a crash on Friday while he was running ninth overall. Dani Sordo provided Hyundai valuable points after he finished nearly three minutes adrift in fourth place.
