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Official Hyundai Motorsport channel publishes their vlog called Liaison after each round of the World Rally Championship and the last one was Rally Japan, pure tarmac event which used to be ran on gravel some fifteen years ago, but in the modern era, it is a pure tarmac rally.
As I wrote before, Hyundai doesn't have a season of dreams and that's thanks to their team boss Cyril A. who managed to destroy what was called nice and well oiled "machine" with his stories and constant fights with the FIA. OK, they decided to continue until the end of 2026 regulations which means we will watch them next year as well. At least something good for the sport.
Adrien Fourmaux showed on this event that Hyundai i20 Rally1 machinery has some pace with two fastest special stage times but he crashed out heavily on the first stage of Sunday, last day of rally and couldn't finish event.
Current World Rally champion Thierry Neuville had lots of technical problems on this event which is strange because Hyundai is a works team with everything available for them and it is just unacceptable to bring him the car which is unreliable.
Estonian Ott Tanak is their best finished in Japan with 4th place overall but you could see on his face that he was widely disappointed how it was for him and the team. Just after the finish, he revealed his retirement from the sport, at least for 2026, and after that, if there will be some good offer on the table, everything is possible.
Please enjoy in this vlog...
Credit for photos and videos to WRC and Youtube.
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Will be interesting to see what happens at the end of 2026. Does Hyundai pull out completely or do they drop to Rally2 and see what happens over the next couple years..... Right now, IMO, Formaux is their best driver... he just needs better machinery and time...
It would be good that in 2026 they restart work on Rally2 car because WRC27 cars will be based on Rally2 machinery...