World champion believes several drivers were caught out by inconsistent position of timing beacons
Photography by Hyundai & M-Sport
Words by Mark Paulson & David Evans
Thierry Neuville has called for a change to the World Rally Championship’s start procedure on stages after being one of several drivers slapped with a jump-start penalty on Rally Estonia.
The world champion was adjudged to have jumped the start on Sunday morning’s first stage, Hellenurme, and therefore received a 10-second penalty. It effectively ended his hopes of challenging team-mate Ott Tänak for second overall, having been just 4s behind overnight.
It also impacted his chances of scoring valuable Super Sunday points, especially with Estonia’s third leg comprising only three stages.
Neuville was not the only driver to fall foul of the automatic sensors on SS18. WRC2 winner Robert Virves and rival Diego Ruiloba suffered similarly, along with WRC3 contestant Grzegorz Bonder. Mikko Heikkilä was another WRC2 runner to be hit with a jump-start penalty earlier on the rally.
Neuville believes it was a case of the timing equipment being setup incorrectly, rather than all of the drivers unfairly stealing a march.
“I’m a little bit surprised,” he told DirtFish. “Five jump-starts in one single stage. I’m pretty sure the positioning on the start line has been too close to the beacon.
“I followed my normal procedure as always. So I’ve been surprised when I got that information. I can only request that we have a standard procedure which is followed. I know there are some rules.
“I know it’s not easy all the time with the marshals to set that properly up. When the stage gets rutted and so on, it’s also more challenging.
“But that’s too often. The distances are varying too much.
Neuville wasn't the only driver copping a startline penalty in Estonia
“Obviously, we must have been right into the beacon. And I mean, it’s bad enough as it is, but potentially on rallies like this, that could cost you a win, 10 seconds.”
Ultimately, Neuville’s penalty didn’t have an effect on the result. He finished third overall, 18.6s down on Tänak and 13.7s clear of Kalle Rovanperä in fourth. In the Super Sunday standings, Neuville earned one point for fifth position, 10.2s slower than fourth-placed Elfyn Evans.
“It doesn’t cost you anything at the end,” he admitted. “We finished two tenths behind Elfyn, 10.2, so it wouldn’t have cost us any point today.
“My position was third here this weekend so there’s no debate about that. We were close, but third was our place and we can accept that.”
Words:Mark Paulson
Tags: Rally Estonia, Rally Estonia 2025, Thierry Neuville, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date July 25, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/07/Cp69Gwy1-2025ESTONIA_VT_152-780x520.jpg July 25, 2025
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