The world champion has promised to go for rally wins now he feels his title defense is over
Photography by Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry & Colin Clark
World Rally champion Thierry Neuville is targeting rally victories to end the year, now that he feels his title defense is over.
The Hyundai driver had been running second at last week’s Rally Finland, but a puncture on Saturday afternoon dropped him to sixth and left the usually unflappable Neuville conceding his quest for a second world title was basically over.
Awaking the next morning, the Belgian hadn’t changed his tune.
“We’re probably not fighting for first anymore this year, but maybe fight for third, or fourth, or fifth,” Neuville told DirtFish.
“We can target some victories, but again things need to be aligned otherwise it doesn’t work.”
Neuville eventually scored more points in Finland than team-mate Ott Tänak but less than the rest of his rivals, meaning his deficit to championship leader Elfyn Evans has grown to 51 points.
Sébastien Ogier and Tänak, who are locked on the same number of points, are 38 points ahead.
“I don’t know how [we can still fight],” Neuville reflected. “It’s 51 points. There are three, nearly four drivers within 10 points, more or less, which probably means 10 points per round on all of the drivers to gain.
“So I don’t know how we will be able to make that happen, especially with the struggle we have and things are not going our way. However, we’re going to go for some wins and podiums and try to smash some good results on some rallies.”
Neuville hasn’t won a round of the WRC since Acropolis Rally Greece last September, but has tasted success at both Central European Rally and Rally Japan before, with both rallies still to come this year.
He added: “I mean I have probably less to lose than anybody now so I can take a bit more risk and chase victories – that will be my target.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Thierry Neuville, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date August 9, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/4jQPRWor-2025ESTONIA_VT_182-1-780x520.jpg August 9, 2025
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