2024 WRC Rally Chile | 7 talking points

Hyundai lead halved

It could have been a really terrible weekend for Hyundai if things had gone the way it seemed they would at about midday UK time on Saturday. At the end of the rally, it was only a pretty poor one for the team from Korea/Germany. 

Third and fourth for Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak helped to diminish some of the damage to Hyundai’s hopes of a double title, but with Toyota filling out the top two positions the championship lead was slashed to under 20 points. With two rallies to go and Toyota having won seven of the 11 rallies so far this year, it’s going to be a real fight for the manufacturers’ crown.

Neuville doing what he needs to

But the other thing that mitigates the bad weekend for Hyundai is that Thierry Neuville continues to, whether by luck or judgement, do what he needs to do. Having been sixth at the end of day one, and incredibly grumpy by the end of day two, fourth place – with five more points from Sunday – is a decent weekend for the Belgian.

The fact that Ott Tänak suffered from being in the wrong place for the wrong weather and Sébastien Ogier had his second awful weekend in a row after hitting a rock, meant Neuville left South America with a 29-point lead. 

It’s not fully over, and Ogier and even Elfyn Evans aren’t out of it yet. At some point Neuville’s luck could easily change. But continuing to bring home a good haul of points will see Thierry claim his first title. 

Evans suffers the travails of luck... again

If you want to work out where that luck might be coming from, take a look in the direction of Elfyn Evans. Actually, this weekend should be seen as an encouraging one for the Welshman, following a run of two awful rallies in a row. But as he was leading by a significant margin in the middle of Saturday and by the end of the day was miles behind his team-mate, it was a disappointing return.

Bad luck? Well, the extraordinary fog that rolled into the stages over Saturday and Sunday hit right in the middle of a stage. Those in front of Ott Tänak got through without much worry. But Tänak and Evans were hit by descending mist that turned into thick fog. In front, Kalle Rovanperä was hit with a mild dose, but with no care for his full season and being one of the rally greats, he smashed his way through. Tänak and Evans ended up crawling through, dropping 18 and 24 seconds respectively. As the fog continued to worsen through stage 12, they dropped even more time. Just Elfyn’s luck in 2024.

It all falls apart for Ogier

Oh Sébastien. Or maybe that should be pointed at me? I don’t want to go back and look at my previous reports on rallies, mostly for fear of what I might see, because I think I might have cursed the eight-time WRC champion.

When he agreed to complete the season a couple of rounds ago he was the form driver, utterly dominant on rally after rally. Now he’s come home with finishes of 18^th and 36^th. Eesh. 

The Frenchman was already over a minute-and-a-half down when he put his Toyota GR Yaris into a bank having hit a rock. But that, and his initial incident when he knocked a tyre off a rim, just summed up life for Ogier at the moment. 

He also spent the whole weekend refusing to speak to the end of stage interviewers, a stance that Ott Tänak also repeated in part. This was thanks to the massive, and slightly ridiculous, suspended fine received after the Acropolis rally for criticising the organisers. Ironically, the criticism was so warranted that the Greek organisers actually acquiesced to his requests. After this and Max Verstappen’s run in with the FIA, Ogier took his stance, politely declining to speak to RallyTV’s interviewers. 

It’s a sad situation and one that seems completely pointless. Not only was Ogier right in his criticism in Greece, but surely we want to hear what the drivers have to say, even when it’s negative? I might not be speaking for Goodwood here, but I have to question what the FIA thinks it’s going to achieve with this stance toward some of motorsport’s star drivers.

Kalle just does his thing… eventually

Four wins out of seven appearances and it should have been five. Kalle Rovanperä is still in a league of his own even when he decides to take a year out of the WRC. But this wasn’t the most Rovanperä of performances. He struggled on Friday, unsure of how to approach the stone-littered stages and complaining that he couldn’t find a rhythm.

One day was all the respite the rest of the field got. On Sunday he was peerless, somehow ignoring the descent of fog to go from 13 seconds down to 15 ahead in two stages. By the end of Sunday, he was 24 seconds clear and only beaten on day three points by Ogier, who was driving angry. If Neuville or Evans win their first titles this year they will be relieved that they have, because with Kalle back full time for 2025 it feels like we’re ready to see something special again. 

Rally drivers doing rally driver things

Rally drivers are a different breed. In fact, everyone involved in rallying is, but when you compare those competing in the WRC with their equivalents in some other major championships, there is a real difference. 

First, we got Adrien Fourmaux competing with a massive flashing warning light on his dash. An issue he admitted he had caused and then fixed himself. An alternator belt problem was fixed at the roadside by the Frenchman, but in the process he damaged some pipe. Pre-stage, he and co-driver Alex Coria fixed that issue, but ended up with a penalty due to missing their stage time. Imagine an F1 driver jumping out of the car and changing a broken pump pre-race…

Meanwhile, Sébastien Ogier stuck his car in a bank, from which he and Vincent Landais were unable to release themselves. The pair spent the rest of the stage warning oncoming drivers of their stricken Toyota, before eventually digging the GR Yaris out with the help of some DirtFish journalists. Ogier, who had gone off a few hundred metres from stage end, then crossed the line 46 minutes down on the field.

As I said, rally drivers are a different breed. 

WRC2 title delayed

A final word for Oliver Solberg, who could have clinched the WRC2 title in Chile on the last of his nominated rallies for the year. Instead, a puncture stuck him miles back and, despite fighting back by over a minute on day three, he was left languishing in a disappointing fourth.  

Title rival Yohan Rossel won the rally, in part thanks to being awarded a notional time on the same stage, after the WRC agreed he had been forced to drive through Solberg’s dust when his rival rejoined. The Frenchman still has one more rally to add to his points tally, which is currently only inferior to the Swede’s to the tune of 12. Behind them, Sami Pajari also has another points-scoring rally to add into the mix, and is just three further back. It makes for an interesting end to the season, which is always difficult to follow given the nature of WRC2. But you have to feel a little sorry for Solberg.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.