A fighting fit Thierry Neuville completed his first test in a Hyundai i20 in Sardinia last week, just six days after crashing out of Copec Rally Chile.
Neuville completed a day of running in preparation for Rally Italia Sardegna, driving without any ill effects from the injury he sustained to his left leg in the round six accident.
“The leg is fine, it’s recovering quickly and I feel really good overall,” said Neuville. “We jumped in the car and immediately the feeling was there, like it was on the last two events.”
As well as finding the feeling in himself, Neuville was also pleased to report a further step with the Hyundai.
“Today was a Sardinia test,” the Belgian added, “and we also had to reconfirm the links for the differentials for Portugal and Sardinia (Vodafone Rally de Portugal and Rally Italia Sardegna are paired events for engine and transmission for the Korean team).
“Finally, the test was to find the best settings for Sardinia, but we could also improve the car for Portugal and I am already looking forward to this one.”
Neuville will be eagerly anticipating both Portugal and Italy, having won the two events last season.
His Sardinian success over Sébastien Ogier was one of the 2018 season’s highlights as the two title contenders went into the beautiful island Sassari-Argentiera Power Stage with just 0.8 seconds separating them. Neuville won by 0.7 seconds.
Neuville’s co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul missed last week’s test, but that was a planned move with Julien Vial, Neuville’s gravel note co-driver, standing in. Gilsoul was uninjured in their massive Chile crash which cost the pair their WRC championship lead.