Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul took a dramatic second consecutive win of their season to underline their credentials as title contenders in the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship. The Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC driver was made to fight incredibly hard for it however, overhauling long-time leader Elfyn Evans in El Condor, the end of rally Power Stage, to take a maximum 30 points and Hyundai Motorsport's second Argentina victory by a mere 0.7 seconds.
Argentina, known to be the WRC's toughest and roughest rally, lived up to its reputation as early as the very first stage of the event, but young Welshman Elfyn Evans appeared to be completely immune to all the peril that befell the majority of his rivals, opening up a lead of just over a minute by mid-distance before seeing it whittled down stage by stage as he too began to hit problems. Two punctures, brake issues, engine troubles and a missing rear diffuser from his Fiesta pegged the British Rally Champion back and ate away the advantage he had engineered with the help of his DMACK rubber. This set up a thrilling final stage shoot-out, similar to that of last year between Hayden Paddon and Sebastien Ogier, involving Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville who had overcome issues on the opening leg to close to within 0.6 seconds of the British star. This time around however the underdog didn't come out on top as Evans, who was 3 seconds up in the splits, made a slight mistake negotiating one of El Condor's many narrow suspension bridges which ultimately lost him his first WRC win, to the jubilation of Neuville at the stop control who prevented Argentina from crowning a third debut winner in as many years. This result is of huge significance. As well as being one of the closest and most dramatic finishes in WRC history, it has proved that much like Ott Tanak, Elfyn Evans is a WRC winner in the waiting, not just a potential prospect for success. But perhaps more importantly for this incredibly exciting season, Thierry Neuville has made huge gains in the title race, closing within two points of Latvala and less than 30 behind Ogier. The Belgian bullet is now a serious contender for his maiden world championship. Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja completed the podium in Argentina to help M-Sport keep their lead in the constructors championship ahead of Hyundai Motorsport. The Estonian grabbed his third podium finish in the process, and despite not being able to match his DMACK-shod team mate, he was consistently quicker than stable mate Ogier. This was another mature and impressive performance from Tanak. It isn't often that Sebastien Ogier finishes as the last of a manufacturer's entered cars, but in South America this was the case as the champion's winless run in Argentina continues. The Frenchman never really looked comfortable behind the wheel and didn't really feature at all in the battle at the front, making two uncharacteristic errors on both Friday and Saturday to take his first non-podium finish of the year. As ever, Ogier did actually increase his championship lead after round five over second placed Jari-Matti Latvala, but the major gains Thierry Neuville has made will be of great concern to him. Jari-Matti was the man that slotted in behind Ogier on the Argentine leaderboard, bringing the Toyota Yaris he described as a "tank" home to record another solid points scoring finish. The Finn was running as high as second on Friday morning but the same overheating engine issues that blighted the Tommi Makinen built Yaris in Mexico re-appeared at the weekend, which saw him plummet down the order. Latvala is still having a good season, but we've yet to see the frightening pace we saw back in February in the frozen Swedish forests. Hayden Paddon's disappointing 2017 season continued on just the second stage of the rally when a slow speed roll cost him two and a half minutes. From then on the Kiwi struggled to find true front-running form and his deflation was evident at the end of El Condor when he commented on his win last year as a career high, and his current spell of form as a career low. Paddon is his own worst critic, but he badly needs a strong performance in Portugal. His Argentine adventure ended in power steering failure. You would've been forgiven for forgetting Juho Hanninen was even competing in Argentina. Apart from the live stages, I don't think the Finn featured at any point throughout WRC+'s TV coverage across the weekend, which means unlike in Monte-Carlo, Sweden and Corsica he didn't bin it, but he didn't do anything note-worthy either. Much like Mads Ostberg last season, Juho is feeling the wrath in my rally reviews, but with the amount of talent sitting on the sidelines Hanninen really needs to up his game, and soon. Esapekka Lappi makes his WRC debut for Toyota next time out in Portugal, and if he beats Hanninen it really could and probably should be curtains for Juho. Dani Sordo had a troubled weekend in the third of Hyundai's i20 Coupe World Rally Cars. A puncture on the final stage summed it up for the Spaniard. Mads Ostberg claimed ninth after running second at the end of Friday, taking advantage of his pre-event test in Argentina which the factory teams aren't allowed to do. However, he lost his centre diff in a water splash and then broke his suspension on a rock, but recovered under Rally2 to take ninth. Pontus Tidemand dominated WRC2 to take his third win of the year, taking victory by over 10 minutes in a Skoda Fabia R5 to take the final points scoring finish. It's been too often that I discuss Kris Meeke this far down in these pieces, but once again the Citroen star had a 'mare in Argentina. On the scene of his debut win two years ago where he emotionally dedicated the victory to his mentor Colin McRae, the Ulsterman put in the classic Colin McRae performance. A rut in the road sent his C3 WRC rolling into the undergrowth, which Citroen attributed to a set-up issue. He then suffered a huge 14-roll crash on Saturday and was lucky to escape unscathed, which is testament to the strength of modern rally cars. But for a man many touted as title favourite pre-season, he needs to find some consistency in his driving. Meeke's mentor Colin McRae was known as one of the best drivers in the world, but only won one title in 10 years. His raw speed and rally winning ability was without question, but his ability to reign it in, bag the points and play the long game wasn't exacly his strong point. It's looking like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Craig Breen capped off another bad weekend for Citroen as his gearbox broke on the same rut that sent Meeke off on Friday. Breen never got back out until Sunday which was a shame given the Irishman could have done with seat time on an event he had never done previously. I really do hope I am wrong about Kris Meeke, but he is most definitely out of this year's title race at the very least. 2017 is looking like a three way showdown between M-Sport's Ogier, Toyota's Latvala and Hyundai's Neuville, and I can't wait out to see how it all plays out with Ogier's clever nature and Neuville's unreal pace. Next stop: Portugal - the first European gravel round of the season.
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January 2018
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