Four rounds of the 2016 World Rally Championship that I am competing in with Thierry Neuville in an\u00a0 official Hyundai i20 WRC have handed down a verdict. The moment seems appropriate for me to\u00a0 draw up an initial assessment, positive and above all encouraging for the future.<\/p>\n
As in previous years, the season kicked off with the Monte-Carlo, a tricky rally on account of the\u00a0 weather variations that enormously complicate the choice of tyres. We had not always enjoyed\u00a0 success in this major rendezvous in the past.<\/p>\n
But this time around everything went smoothly: we managed to avoid the countless traps of the\u00a0 sixteen special stages held in the Alps and the Nice hinterland, and we reached the Principality in 3 rd\u00a0 place notwithstanding a rather stressful ending to the course due to a transmission worry.<\/p>\n
We held a comfortable lead on our closest rivals, and we easily managed those final tense moments\u00a0 to start our 2016 campaign with a podium, and not just any! In fact the \u201cMonte\u201d enjoys a specific\u00a0 aura with both the general public and the specialists, and to register a choice performance there\u00a0 allowed me to fully measure my role of Ambassador for Wallonia.<\/p>\n
The day after this successful springboard the troops morale was at a peak as we headed off for\u00a0 Sweden for a stage where Thierry and I have kept an excellent souvenir following a brilliant 2 nd place\u00a0 in 2015. Unfortunately matters turned out less well. In the first instance the far too mild weather for\u00a0 the season distorted the event that was far from \u201cwintery\u201d.<\/p>\n
But it was a technical problem that ruined our chances at the outset: a transmission component had\u00a0 given up the ghost after only several kilometres, with our car no longer being a 4X4 but a simple 2\u00a0 wheel-drive; no assistance was allowed during this first day, so we had no other option but to\u00a0 continue our route in that fashion until the end of the day, when we were able to hand over the i20\u00a0 WRC to our mechanics.<\/p>\n
This incident was even more frustrating as on the following morning, with our mount back in top\u00a0 form, we proved that we could aim for a podium! In hindsight we realised the importance of the\u00a0 annulment of the shakedown, the special test stage held on the eve of the start, but exceptionally\u00a0 cancelled in Sweden: in lieu of it happening in the race, the incident that ruined our chances would\u00a0 have occurred during that shakedown and the repairs would have been carried out before the start.\u00a0 If only\u2026<\/p>\n
And with a great thirst for revenge Thierry and I took on the third round of the Championship,\u00a0 Mexico. Were we too motivated? Were we out to make too much of it? The fact remains that\u00a0 following an excellent start, we committed two minor mistakes\u2026with heavy consequences, and we\u00a0 take full responsibility for these. It is worth noting that the Mexican special stages are held on\u00a0 unpaved roads made extremely slippery by a layer of dust covering a hardened surface. This\u00a0 \u201ccocktail\u201d is delicate to handle and the margin for error is extremely slight \u2026<\/p>\n
The last meeting I would like talk about was in the region of Cordoba in Argentina where, similar to\u00a0 Mexico, the spectators have an exuberant passion for rally. It is brilliant to compete in such an\u00a0 atmosphere filled with enthusiasm, eagerness and geniality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four rounds of the 2016 World Rally Championship that I am competing in with Thierry Neuville in an\u00a0 official Hyundai i20 WRC have handed down a verdict. The moment seems appropriate for me to\u00a0 draw up an initial assessment, positive and above all encouraging for the future. As in previous years, the season kicked off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2814,"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\/2813"}],"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=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicolasgilsoul.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}