Hyundai Motorsport star Thierry Neuville thanked his home fans with a peerless drive to victory at Ypres Rally Masters last week.

The Belgian dominated the Friday-Saturday event, which ran alongside the main Ypres Rally, winning every stage.

The i20 Coupe WRC driver finished 8m39s ahead of second-placed Paul Liataer’s Ford Escort Cosworth. Had Neuville been driving in the main Ypres field, he would have taken more than three minutes out of the fastest R5 cars on the 12 stages the Rally Masters crews contested.

Neuville said: “The main goal last weekend in Ypres was to have some fun and to show the Belgian spectators the World Rally Car, as most of them don’t have this opportunity.

“We have lot of support in Belgium from all over the country and this was a small gift we could give our supporters to thank them.”

As well as entertaining the thousands of fans who turned out to enjoy their local hero in the sunshine, Neuville used the event to tune himself and his i20 into asphalt trim ahead of next month’s ADAC Rallye Deutschland.

Neuville added: “We also took the opportunity to try things on the car, some settings and new things ahead of the upcoming Tarmac rallies in the World Rally Championship.

“Driving the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC in Ypres was a joy, the sense of speed was incredible on these roads – I had a lot of fun and I hope the many spectators who were watching the stages enjoyed it as well.”

Neuville wasn’t the only Hyundai Motorsport driver competing at the weekend. Sébastien Loeb tackled the Rallye Terre du Haut-Var, making his competitive debut in an i20 R5 on the French gravel rally. Predictably, Loeb was fastest by far and only missed out on the win after dropping time with a broken ball joint on the second stage.

Hyundai’s latest recruit Craig Breen won the main Ypres Rally field, leading the field from the fourth stage until the finish in an accomplished debut aboard a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.

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