Thierry Neuville rolls on first test of Rally Chile day two
12th September 2026Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe have rolled off the road on the opening test of day two at the World Rally Championship’s Rally Chile BioBio.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool
Action kicked off in Chile with a 9am start and a 15.65 km test with the first pass of Pelún. However, it wasn’t long before Chile chalked off another driver on its challenging stages as Neuville rolled off SS7, eight kilometres into the test.
The all-Belgian crew of Neuville and Wydaeghe ran wide on the entry to a fast left-right kink, with the Hyundai bouncing off a small dirt bank. The collision bounced the car wide on the exit, before it was collected by a bigger dirt bank, rolling off the road in the process.
On boards showcased that car rolled, shattering the windshield and ripping Wydaeghe’s door from the frame, depositing dirt into the cabin. Thankfully, both the Hyundai crew members were okay in the incident.
Drama on Saturday’s first stage in Chile 🥵
Thierry Neuville has rolled out on SS7, with both crew members OK.https://t.co/AvCmJSNbGp pic.twitter.com/p1SwdhtiKO
— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) September 12, 2026
The Belgian crew had been running sixth overall by the end of Friday’s action, finishing the first day off 27.4 seconds off the lead set by Toyota’s Oliver Solberg, and just two seconds adrift of Toyota’s championship contender, Sami Pajari, in fifth.
As such, Neuville and Wydaeghe’s retirement from the action means Sami Pajari has a comfortable 1 minute and 42.4 second lead over now-sixth-placed Jon Armstrong in his M-Sport Ford Puma.
However, after the first test of Saturday, Neuville’s teammate Adrien Fourmaux has now fallen into range of Pajari, having lost third place to Toyota’s defending world champion, Sebastien Ogier.
Only nine-seconds separate Pajari from the leading Hyundai, Fourmaux, who now occupies fourth.
Read more WRC here:
- Oliver Solberg heads Rally Chile after day one morning loop
- Takamoto Katsuta’s South American woes continue in Rally Chile
- Rally Chile BioBio: Full WRC stage times and guide
- Katsuta crashes out at Rally Paraguay cancelling penultimate stage
- Rally del Paraguay: Full WRC stage times and guide
- FIA conclude Rally Scotland WRC candidate event
- 2026 Czech Rally: Full ERC stage guide and times
- Rally Paraguay: full WRC Rally1 entry list
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
