Neuville just 0.8s from victory!

The Mecsek Rallye, round eight of the 2011 International Rally Challenge, produced an exceptionally thrilling finale.

An assertive comeback by Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg’s Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul enabled them to secure second place in their 207 S2000, a mere 0.8s short of top spot.

“I’ve never driven so quickly in my life, not even in Corsica last May,” said Thierry Neuville after the finish of the Mecsek Rallye. “I felt more and more at one with my 207 S2000 as the rally progressed. I managed to fine-tune my set-up and I really felt that I could push to the limit.”

After completing the first day in third place, 21.4s off the leader, the Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg driver finally bagged second place, eight-tenths of a second short of victory.

“Perhaps we could have won it if I hadn’t been a little late with one particular pace-note,” admits his co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul. “Thierry got us through the moment by purposely spinning, but the incident cost us something like 10 seconds.”

Thierry Neuville was in no mood to place any blame on his navigator, however. “On the contrary, that forced me to up my pace, and that helped me realise how much I could get out of my 207 S2000. I’m only beginning to make the very most of its potential.”

Second overall for the Belgian youngster in Hungary has taken him to fourth place overall – and best-placed Peugeot representative – in the provisional 2011 IRC standings.

Bryan Bouffier and Xavier Panseri rounded off Peugeot’s solid overall run in Hungary with fourth place, while four 207 S2000s figured among the first nine cars home. Robert Butor and Igor Bacigal came eighth, once place clear of Bruno Magalhaès and Paulo Grave (ninth).

“Second place for Thierry here is worth a victory,” says Frédéric Bertrand, manager of Peugeot Sport’s customer competition department. “We had never been to this rally before and it didn’t take us long to find a very efficient set-up for the 207 S2000. As soon as we succeeded in doing that, we had the pleasure of seeing Thierry post a series of fastest stage times which put our rivals under pressure… and one of them cracked. The other one managed to hold on to clinch the win by a margin of just eight-tenths of a second. Even so, Thierry showed that he is capable of profiting from the competitiveness of the 207 S2000 which is more than ever capable of winning. Four Peugeots finished inside the top-nine, and Bryan Bouffier, who was fourth, rounded off a solid overall display. I’m now looking forward to see how Thierry Neuville goes in Sanremo because I am convinced he can challenge for victory once again.”