Thierry Neuville

Thierry Neuville

Thierry Neuville, 2014
Personal information
Nationality Belgium Belgium
Born June 16, 1988
World Rally Championship record
Active years 2008–Present
Teams Citroen, Ford, Hyundai
Rallies 50
Championships 0
Rally wins 1
Podiums 11
Stage wins 45
Total points 369
First rally 2008 Rally Finland

Thierry Neuville (born 16 June 1988 in St. Vith) is a Belgian rally driver. He is currently competing in the World Rally Championship. His co-driver was Nicolas Klinger from his debut until the end of 2010. Klinger was replaced by Nicolas Gilsoul for the first 2011 IRC rally, Monte Carlo. In 2014, Neuville and Gilsoul will drive a factory-backed Hyundai i20 WRC for Hyundai Motorsport.[1]

2010–12

Neuville drove a self-entered Citroën C2 at the 2010 Junior World Rally Championship, collecting a win, a 3rd and three retirements to finish 7th in the standings. He also competed in six rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with a semi-works Peugeot 207 S2000, scoring a 3rd place at Ypres and a 4th place at Sardinia.

In 2010, Neuville competed full-time in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, again driving a semi-works Peugeot 207 S2000. He took his first two victories in the Tour de Corse[2] and Sanremo, resulting 5th in the standings with further 2nd, 3rd and 4th race finishes.

Citroën signed Neuville for the 2012 World Rally Championship, driving all races on a Citroën DS3 WRC for the Citroën Junior Team except two for the Qatar World Rally Team. The Belgian scored in five races, including a 4th at Alsace and two 5ths at Argentina and New Zealand, and finished 7th in the championship.

2013

Neuville joined Qatar for the 2013 season, now driving a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. He retired for the third time in Rallye Monte-Carlo, after going off track on the third stage. He managed to get some good points in Rally Sweden, scoring a 5th place, on a surface where he is not very comfortable. Then, in Mexico, he was one of the men of the rally, getting his maiden podium finish (3rd place). Round 4, Portugal, was disappointing, since he finished out of the points, after returning to the rally in Rally 2 after retiring from 5th place. 5th place was again for Neuville, in Argentina. Then came a streak of podiums which turned Neuville into the surprise driver of the season: third place in Greece and second place in Italy, Finland, Germany and Australia.

At Rallye Deutschland, which Neuville considers his home rally, the Belgian was in second place during the second day, trailing Jari-Matti Latvala just for a few seconds. But in a surprise twist, Latvala left the road and Neuville did the same thing right after him. Thierry led the rally for a stage, but eventually, and in the second to last stage of the day, he lost the lead to Dani Sordo. The last stage of the day was canceled, so the drivers entered the final two stages separated by just 0.8 seconds. The second to last stage was won by Sordo, which left the Spaniard three seconds ahead of Neuville in the overall classification. Both gave everything in the PowerStage and Thierry eventually had a small off in the very last section of the stage, therefore losing the chance to win. He ended in second place, 53 seconds behind Sordo.

At Rallye Australia, Neuville was in third place, 25.2 seconds behind Mikko Hirvonen, before the PowerStage. With Sébastien Ogier comfortably in the lead, he needed to finish in second place overall and in the PowerStage in order to still have a mathematical chance at the title. Hirvonen punctured in the stage, allowing Thierry to finish in second overall and second in the PowerStage. After this dramatic finish, a frustrated Ogier and Neuville were the only ones still with a chance for the title, although Ogier only needed to score a single point in the remaining three rounds.

2014

On 5 November 2013, Hyundai Motorsport GmbH confirmed it had signed Neuville on a multi-year deal to lead its entry into the WRC from 2014.[3] After halfway point of the 2014 season Neuville has scored 2 podiums for Hyundai and currently runs in 6th in the overall standings.

Thierry Neuville rolled six times during the shakedown of the ADAC Rally of Germany, stopping in the vineyards. The car was repaired and Thierry Neuville and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul finished the rally in first position. That was Thierry Neuville and Hyundai Motorsport GmbH's maiden win in the WRC.[4] Previous year's winner Dani Sordo, who was now his team mate, finished second, so it was not just Hyundai's first win, but also a double victory.

WRC Victories

 #  Event Season Co-driver Car
1 Germany 32. ADAC Rallye Deutschland 2014 Belgium Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai i20 WRC

Results

Neuville at the 2010 Rallye de France

WRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 WDC Points
2008 Thierry Neuville Ford Fiesta ST MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRC TUR FIN
DNS		 GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR NC 0
2009 Thierry Neuville Citroën C2 R2 Max IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP
Ret		 GBR NC 0
2010 Thierry Neuville Citroën C2 S1600 SWE MEX JOR TUR
Ret		 NZL POR
Ret		 BUL
12		 FIN GER
Ret		 JPN FRA
27		 ESP GBR NC 0
2012 Citroën Junior World Rally Team Citroën DS3 WRC MON
Ret		 SWE
12		 MEX
13		 POR
8		 ARG
5		 GRE
6		 FIN
16		 GER
12		 GBR
7		 FRA
4		 ESP
12		 7th 53
Qatar World Rally Team NZL
5		 ITA
19
2013 Qatar World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC MON
Ret		 SWE
5		 MEX
3		 POR
17		 ARG
5		 GRE
3		 ITA
2		 FIN
2		 GER
2		 AUS
2		 FRA
4		 ESP
4		 GBR
3		 2nd 176
2014 Hyundai Shell World Rally Team Hyundai i20 WRC MON
Ret		 SWE
28		 MEX
3		 POR
7		 ARG
5		 ITA
16		 POL
3		 FIN
Ret		 GER
1		 AUS
7		 FRA
8		 ESP
6		 GBR
4		 6th 105
2015 Hyundai Shell World Rally Team Hyundai i20 WRC MON
5		 SWE
2		 MEX
8		 ARG
Ret		 POR ITA POL FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR 6th* 35*

* Season in progress.

JWRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pos. Points
2010 Thierry Neuville Citroën C2 S1600 TUR
Ret		 POR
Ret		 BUL
1		 GER
Ret		 FRA
3		 ESP 7th 40

IRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 WDC Points
2009 BF Goodrich Drivers Team Peugeot 207 S2000 MON BRA KEN POR BEL
Ret		 RUS POR CZE ESP ITA SCO NC 0
2010 Peugeot Team Bel-Lux Peugeot 207 S2000 MON BRA ARG CAN
Ret		 ITA
4		 BEL
3		 AZO MAD CZE
Ret		 ITA
8		 SCO
Ret		 CYP 9th 12
2011 Peugeot Team Bel-Lux Peugeot 207 S2000 MON
Ret		 CAN
3		 COR
1		 YAL
6		 YPR
Ret		 AZO ZLI
4		 MEC
2		 SAN
1		 SCO
6		 CYP
Ret		 5th 115

References

  1. ↑ Hyundai signs Thierry Neuville to lead WRC charge – AUSmotive.com
  2. ↑ Neuville Secures Peugeot's 4th Corse Win – Rallye Info
  3. ↑ Hyundai signs Thierry Neuville to lead WRC charge – AUSmotive.com
  4. ↑ "Autosport.com". Autosport.com. wrc.com. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014.

External links

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