ALTAS ROTAÇÕES - Hyundai World Rally Team claims top-five in Japan

Sunday, 31 May 2026 14:35

Hyundai World Rally Team claims top-five in Japan

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Hyundai World Rally Team claims top-five in Japan

Hyundai Motorsport completed the final tarmac event of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season with a top-five result for Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria in Japan. Portugal winners Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe finished sixth, one place ahead of Hayden Paddon and John Kennard.

High temperatures over the course of the weekend presented challenges for all three crews who spent much of the rally struggling for front-end grip on the hard tyre compound. The exception was Friday morning’s loop of stages where the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 was able to challenge its competitors on the damp roads after overnight rain.

An early spin on SS2 (Isegami’s Tunnel) and a lack of feeling with the car’s setup on the damp morning stages meant Fourmaux was a frustrated seventh at the end of the first day. Overnight changes to the car gave him more confidence on Saturday morning and combined with Neuville’s issues, he moved up to sixth by SS9 and then into the top five after Oliver Solberg retired on SS10. The Frenchman was happier with the overall balance and had a largely untroubled Saturday afternoon loop; the only blemish being an extra doughnut in the day’s penultimate stage in Fujioka. On Super Sunday, Fourmaux drove within the limits of the car, electing not to take any risks as he banked valuable championship points with fifth at the finish.

Neuville made the most of the soft compound tyres to set competitive stage times and run as high as fourth overall before mid-day service on Friday. As temperatures rose and crews fitted the hard tyres, however, the Belgian began to struggle more with the balance of the car. A handbrake system sensor issue, partially resolved at the tyre fitting zone, but which remained intermittent for the remainder of the day, and the decision to stiffen the rear springs on the car contributed to Neuville dropping two places on Saturday. The crew did manage the third-quickest time on the day’s final superspecial before settling for sixth place after a trouble-free final six stages on Sunday.

Having never driven Rally Japan on tarmac before, Paddon’s third WRC appearance of the year was a fact-finding mission on the opening day and, much like his team-mates, he struggled to generate front-end grip. The crew chose to fit a cross of hard and soft tyres on Friday morning when most others opted for the faster soft compound and were left playing catch-up for the rest of the day. The Kiwi enjoyed a far more positive afternoon loop on Saturday which yielded a best stage result of sixth on SS13. Following a prudent final morning, Paddon brought the car home in a comfortable seventh at the end of the Power Stage.

Crew Notes: Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (#16 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)

After a difficult start to the rally, the French crew emerged as the fastest Hyundai Motorsport crew by the end of Saturday’s stages

Fourmaux heads into the second half of the year sixth in the WRC standings

Fourmaux said: "Fifth is obviously not where I wanted to be, I wanted to be fighting the Toyotas this weekend. We were losing a lot of time in the rain, but then even in dry conditions I wasn’t able to do good times against them, so it was quite frustrating. It is a bit of a relief that there are no more tarmac rallies this season and that we can focus on the gravel now. Realistically, a podium position in the championship is more our target than winning it but you know in rallying, a lot of things can happen in seven events. Even if we are slower on this surface, I am definitely going to miss these Rally1 cars on tarmac, the performance of these cars on tarmac is just incredible."

Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (#11 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)

Continuing struggles with the hard tyre on tarmac forced the Belgian crew into a damage limitation rally from the beginning

Neuville aiming to kickstart season properly with return to gravel events next time out

Neuville said: "I was on the limit of the front of the car all the time and I am disappointed that I could not find any improvements on the car in terms of setup. On Saturday, maybe we made the wrong decision to stiffen the rear springs and I paid the price; today we reverted to our Friday settings, and we were up to speed again compared to Adrien, so that is the positive from the weekend. We are looking forward to getting back on gravel now and we need to go and get some points because Elfyn [Evans] and Taka [Katsuta] are far in front but third is only 29 points so that is not too far away. We know where we are strong and when the grip is high, we are not far away, but when it is more slippery, it is a bit worse. The fight will always be there, and I am up for the challenge!"

Crew Notes: Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (#20 Hyundai i20 N Rally1)

Learning weekend for Paddon and Kennard on their third WRC outing of the year and first tarmac experience of Rally Japan

Crew enjoyed a positive Saturday afternoon as confidence and knowledge of the car grew

Paddon said: "Rally Japan has been a rally of two halves; it didn’t start off too well on Friday but then we were able to make some setup changes and improvements for Saturday and Sunday and that certainly brought us a lot closer to our team-mates. In the end, seventh is probably the maximum we could have achieved, even if the rally started more positively so getting the car to the end in one piece with no scratches or damage on a new rally for us ticked a lot of boxes. The tarmac rallies have been three of the most challenging ones for us this year, there’s no hiding the fact, but we have taken it in our stride and done the best we could. We have improved, the speed has got better each rally, we’ve had a couple of good results and really done everything that was asked of us."

Hyundai Motorsport WRC Sporting Director Andrew Wheatley said: "To have three cars reaching the finish with no issues is a positive for us, even though the performance was not where we wanted it to be. As the tarmac era for the Rally1 cars comes to an end, we can be thankful for the chance to see these incredible cars compete and the successes that this surface has given us in the past. Now we can turn and look forward to the future and the opportunity to come back in the second half of the season on gravel, where our aim is to be able to fight for regular podiums on the surface that is better suited to our car."

Next rally

The second half of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews back to gravel for the remainder of the season, starting with the Acropolis Rally Greece on the weekend of 25-28 June.