Across the first three rounds of𝐆 the new World Rally Championship season, the Alzenau-based squad's I20 N car has shown itself to be the most vulnerable of the new Rally1 generation machines.

At Rally Croatia, Neuville was hampered by a recalcitrant hybrid energy recovery system, day two engine problems, and a faulty alternator that resulted in him picking up a 40 second time penalty for checꩲking ꦉinto Friday’s lunchtime service halt four minutes late.

But there🔯 green shoots of recovery, with this made possible by Hyundai’s engineers redoubling their efforts to round off the car's rough edges in the e𒉰ight weeks between Rally Sweden and Croatia.

Having failed to make an impression before arriving in Croatia, ജOtt Tanak came within an ace of ending a 14-month winless run in the competition. In the en♋d, the 2019 champion was denied by a super human effort on the end-of-rally Power Stage by Kalle Rovanpera who turned a 1.4 second deficit into a 4.3 second lead.

Neuville survived a final stage overshoot, two flat tyres, and intercom gremlins on his way to third – a result that places him second in the drivers’ standings. However, if Hyunda🦂i is to take a first win🧜 of 2022, the work must continue, he said.

“It has been challenging, emotional, very up and down wee𒐪kend,” reflected the Belgian. “Lots of frustration and sometimes a bit of joy as well, like this morning when we were able to catch back the third position 🧸which was our main target after the several issues of the weekend.

“So, I’m happy to be here now, even if we lost thre🦩e possible points on the Power Stage. That’s the only thing me and Martijn gave away this weekend.

“The car felt better, that’s for sure,” he added, “but it would not be realisti💯c to say that in one event we could catch up that much [ground] from the problems we൩ had in Monte [Carlo].

“We have to stay realistic; we have made a step forward; we have got a bit c𒊎loser but we are not there yet. In terms of performance but also in terms of reliability as well because in the first three races I got hit three times [♚with problems].

“I hope we can improve that as a team for the upcoming events. Somehow, we have two cars on the podium so for the manufacturers’ [title] it was a bit b✨etter weekend. But I think we still need to make some steps foꦆrward to win the Championship.”