I\u2019m delighted to be back among you once again and give you some more good news.<\/p>\n
Together with\u00a0 Thierry Neuville we completed the Rally Poland in 4th place, finishing a mere 8 tenths of a second\u00a0 behind our teammates Hayden Paddon and John Kennard\u2026 and 3 seconds down on the team\u00a0 classified in 2 nd place. It goes to show how close the battle was!<\/p>\n
An extremely positive result, especially since it allows Hyundai to score some substantial points in\u00a0 the Constructors World Championship.<\/p>\n
Taking in some rather sandy tracks the course of the Rally Poland is very fast and the numerous\u00a0 curves are negotiated in either 5 th or 6 th gear. During the first two days of the race it was terribly hot,\u00a0 more than 30 degrees, which for the competitors made it even more complicated. Then on Sunday\u00a0 the rain put in an appearance, which somewhat reshuffled the cards: the course became extremely\u00a0 muddy, creating large puddles of water with numerous stones appearing, resulting in punctures and\u00a0 suspension problems. Luckily we managed to avoid these pitfalls to reach the finish in 4 th place,\u00a0 confirming our place among this small circle of candidates for overall victory in the World\u00a0 Championship.<\/p>\n
Apart from misting up during the last stage, we only experienced one worry but it is worth\u00a0 mentioning. On the Hyundai i20 WRC, the driver changes gears via paddle shifters, however a\u00a0 traditional gear shift is fitted to overcome an eventual system failure: don\u2019t ask me why, but this\u00a0 lever broke right in the middle of the stage \u2026 and lodged itself along Thierry\u2019s leg, hindering him\u00a0 during several braking points. Although in theory this may have been a small problem, the incident\u00a0 cost us a few seconds \u2026 and, who knows, perhaps a place on the podium.<\/p>\n
But that is not the most important: as I said, this result in Poland came just at the right moment to\u00a0 further bolster our morale on the eve of a short break that will allows us to recharge our batteries\u00a0 prior to tackling the second half of the season in Finland, on another course for the \u2018big boys\u2019.<\/p>\n
Before that I will have negotiated a major turning point in my life \u2026 I think I can tell you: I\u2019m writing\u00a0 this just prior to jumping on a plane that will bring me straight back to Belgium where my partner\u00a0 Cindy is about to give birth to a little girl; and for nothing in the world would I want to miss this\u00a0 unforgettable moment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m delighted to be back among you once again and give you some more good news. Together with\u00a0 Thierry Neuville we completed the Rally Poland in 4th place, finishing a mere 8 tenths of a second\u00a0 behind our teammates Hayden Paddon and John Kennard\u2026 and 3 seconds down on the team\u00a0 classified in 2 nd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}