Thierry Neuville has not given up on his dream of securing this year’s WRC drivers’ title, despite the crushing set-back of a no-score at Rallye Deutschland.
Neuville began last week’s rally leading the championship, but left it trailing four time champ Sébastien Ogier by 17 points after he lost a wheel and retired on the second day.
With three of the season’s 13 rounds remaining, the Hyundai ace stressed that he was not ready to concede defeat and was determined to fight on.
“I could be angry with myself, but I have to accept it. I look forward and keep the motivation for the next rounds,” he said. “I don’t want to give up. I want to continue fighting until the end of the year. I’m pretty confident that we will still have some enjoyable events and maybe one or two more wins. I have a feeling that it’s still not over.”
But with a sizeable points deficit to make up at the rounds in Spain, Great Britain and Australia, Neuville conceded that he was likely to need some help from his rival.
“I know that I can catch some points to Ogier for sure, but a lot will depend on his results at the upcoming events. On the next three rounds Seb can have a problem as well, he can make a mistake, have a puncture, everything is still possible,” he said.
As well as looking to capitalise on any mistakes from Ogier, Neuville said he was prepared to take more chances in order to overhaul his title rival.
“I think we have to definitely go for a more aggressive approach,” he explained. “I have finished second in the championship a couple of times. I don’t care, I want to win. So for the upcoming events our approach will be definitely much more aggressive – taking more risks to try and catch back some points.”
