Ott Tanak says if team-mate Thierry Neuville is “smart” at the Rally Japan there will be no chance for him to claim a second World Rally Championship title despite Hyundai allowing its drivers to fight.
Both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles will go down to the wire in Japan next month after last weekend’s dramatic Central European Rally.
Neuville could have sealed a maiden world title if he had outscored Tanak by two points at the three-nation rally, but instead left with his 29-point lead cut to 25 after the 2019 champion claimed a 21st career win.
It means the title fight will be decided on Japan’s asphalt roads with the advantage firmly in Neuville’s hands, while Hyundai leads Toyota by 15 points in the manufacturers’ race.
Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul has confirmed that his drivers are able to do battle unabated in Japan, but is also eager to secure a first manufacturers' crown for the Korean brand since 2020.
While Neuville has a significant advantage with 30 points remaining on the table, securing the title is not an absolute certainty.
“I don’t know what difference we can make but we will try our best, but with this scoring system it doesn’t make much difference,” Tanak told Autosport.
“It is true [a retirement can change things] for sure, I guess it depends how much Thierry wants it.
"If he is smart in Japan and does a good job then nobody has a chance, but we also have a responsibility for the manufacturers championship. It is still a big job ahead of us so we can’t really focus only on drivers title. We are responsible for the team too.”
Neuville was on course to beat Tanak last weekend to potentially clinch the world title before two errors in stage 12 dropped him from the lead to fourth.
Reflecting on a weekend where his lead over Tanak decreased, the Belgian believes he fulfilled his main objective of maintaining a comfortable championship lead.
"If we look at our targets ahead of the event we completely fulfilled all of the targets by leaving here with a big lead in the championship for the last round, but also having finished the rally and taken some good Sunday points,” Neuville told Autosport.
“So in that perspective we have achieved but nevertheless we can be disappointed because we were not able to keep the lead.
“If I look at the conditions we faced on Saturday and even on Sunday...I’m not sure on the last day, where the points are validated, I would have been able to go with he same risks as the others.
“It is a comfortable lead. The worst case scenario is we need to take six points. In any other scenario we are pretty fine.
“We need to find the right balance [in Japan] because there is still the manufacturers' championship to fight for and nevertheless we have that third car with Andreas [Mikkelsen] who will go for a push. We need to find a good balance in between a safe but good drive.”
Regardless of the outcome of the drivers’ championship, Hyundai boss Abiteboul is relieved to have secured one of his two main objectives.
“What we can say is we are halfway on our objective," he added. "We have secured a driver title, we don’t know which one yet which is why we don’t want to celebrate.
“We have accomplished our mission so that is a relief and for the rest let’s see what we can do in Japan.”
