Hyundai Motorsport WRC Report: Round 9 - Rally Finland.

Hyundai Motorsport has finished Rally Finland, round nine of the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season, with Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe in a superb second place - marking their sixth podium finish of the season.

Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe consolidated their strong performance on the complex and demanding routes to confirm their first Rally Finland podium as a crew.

Sunday featured an all-new itinerary for the final day. Four stages were contested in fair weather conditions; Moksi-Sahloinen (SS19/SS21, 16.56km), run in reverse from the 2022 edition of the event, and Himos-Jämsä (SS20/22, 9.26km) – a new tight and technical finish to the event at the Himos ski resort.

Although their target was a steady and cautious drive through the stages, the Belgian Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team crew continued to show strong pace in their Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid. Treating SS20 Himos-Jämsä 1 as a recce for the event’s Power Stage, Neuville/Wydaeghe registered the second-fastest time. They repeated the feat on SS21 Moksi-Sahloinen and in the Power Stage itself, scoring four additional championship points.

It was a gripping final day in the battle for third place, with Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula narrowly missing out on a podium position after a concerted effort. In a bid to give them the best chance at success, the team made the tactical decision to have no spare tyre in the #3 Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid. The crew went on to demonstrate some fine Finnish flair, setting top-three times on every stage as they pushed hard to overturn the deficit.

The strategy began well with the Finns taking 1.9 seconds out of Takamoto Katsuta’s advantage on SS19 Moksi-Sahloinen 1. A wild run through SS20 Himos-Jämsä 1 underscored how determined the Finns were for a home podium as they used every inch of road to find a way past the Toyota, yet the gap grew to over seven seconds. The repeat of Moksi-Sahloinen saw the Finns claw back one second, however the time then proved unassailable. A final flourish on the Power Stage saw them finish third, scoring three extra points, but they had to settle for fourth overall.

Neuville has narrowed the gap in the championship standings with just 36 points separating the top three in the drivers’ standings, while Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team remains in second place in the manufacturers’ battle. The team heads to the next round, Acropolis Rally, in high spirits as it looks to defend its clean sweep of the podium positions.