Thierry Neuville

Thierry Neuville

Thierry Neuville, 2014
Personal information
Nationality	Belgian
Born	16 June 1988
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2008–2010, 2012–present
Co-driver	Nicolas Gilsoul Nicolas Klinger
Teams	Citroen, Ford, Hyundai
Rallies	71
Championships	0
Rally wins	2
Podiums	19
Stage wins	79
Total points	584
First rally	2008 Rally Finland
First win	2014 Rallye Deutschland
Last win	2016 Rally d'Italia Sardegna

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. Since 2014, Neuville and Gilsoul have driven a factory-backed Hyundai i20 WRC for Hyundai Motorsport.^[1]

2010–12

Neuville driving a Citroën DS3 WRC at the 2012 Rallye de France.

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 2011, 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 points in six races, with 4th at Alsace as his best result, and finished 7th in the championship.

2013

Neuville en route to 2nd place at the 2013 Rally Finland.

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 next 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

Neuville at the 2014 Rallye Deutschland.

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.

2015

Neuville started the 2015 season strongly, finishing 5th and 2nd in Monte Carlo and Sweden respectively. He finished 8th in the third round in Mexico but had been battling for lead with Ogier during the first day before going off the road.^[5]

The remaining events of the season were disappointing for Neuville. After a huge crash on the last stage of Rally Argentina, his confidence took a knock and he could only manage 1 more podium, which came in Italy. His teammates, Sordo and Hayden Paddon, outperformed Neuville during the last events of the season but he still managed to finish above them in the standings.

WRC Victories

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	32. ADAC Rallye Deutschland	2014	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai i20 WRC
2	13º Rally d'Italia Sardegna	2016	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai i20 WRC

IRC Victories

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	54ème Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc	2011	Nicolas Gilsoul	Peugeot 207 S2000
2	53º Rallye Sanremo	2011	Nicolas Gilsoul	Peugeot 207 S2000

Results

Neuville at the 2010 Rallye de France.

Neuville on a stage at the 2016 Rally Sardinia.

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 Motorsport	Hyundai i20 WRC	MON 5	SWE 2	MEX 8	ARG Ret	POR 39	ITA 3	POL 6	FIN 4	GER 5	AUS 7	FRA 23	ESP 8				6th	90
	Hyundai Motorsport N														GBR Ret
2016	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai NGi20 WRC	MON 3	SWE 14	MEX Ret	ARG 6			POL 4	FIN 4	GER 3	CHN C	FRA 2	ESP 3	GBR 3	AUS 3		2nd	160
	Hyundai Motorsport N						POR 23	ITA 1

* Season still 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.
5. http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/headlines/page/25--7--.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Thierry Neuvile´s official website
• Thierry Neuville’s profile at ewrc-results.com
• Neuville crashed at Monte Carlo Rally
• Neuville rolls heavily during ADAC Rally of Germany Shakedown
• Thierry Neuville, wins crash prone, 2014 WRC ADAC Rallye Deutschland in Hyundai’s first-ever triumph