Van Dalen predicts bright future for Neuville

Thierry Neuville has been tipped for greatness by the man responsible for running his Team Peugeot-Luxembourg 207 Super 2000.

Neuville, 22, impressed throughout this six-event Intercontinental Rally Challenge campaign this season, claiming a podium finish on the Geko Ypres Rally in June on his way to ninth overall in the final drivers’ standings.

Although the German-speaking Belgian has yet to finalise his programme for 2011, it is expected that he will mount an expanded assault on the 12-event IRC series.

Van Dalen said: "Thierry is very good and is improving all of the time. There’s still a lot for him to learn, but he is 22 years old and clearly a star for the future."

"At the start of Rally of Scotland he was around 1.7s per kilometre slower than the drivers at the front, but then he soon got that down to less than one second per kilometre slower, which is very impressive. He did not know Scotland but he learned the event and the surface very quickly and it was not an easy rally to learn. Okay, he made a mistake at the end, but this can happen."