Neuville is “not yet sure” in the WRC title fight.

Ott Tanak says Thierry Neuville is “not sure yet” after denying his Hyundai teammate the World Rally Championship lead at Rally Chile.

The 2019 world champion surpassed Neuville by five points last weekend, reducing the gap in the title race to 29 points, with two rounds of the season remaining in Central Europe and Japan and 60 points on the table.

In a rally that proved difficult for Hyundai, Tanak managed to improve his i20 N through several tweaks throughout the event and led the rally on Friday without scoring a stage win.

The Estonian eventually finished third behind Toyota duo Kalle Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans as the Japanese brand narrowed Hyundai's lead in the manufacturers' championship from 35 to 17 points.

While Neuville remains the favorite to win his first WRC drivers' title, Tanak says the fight is not over yet.

“Of course it's a very big gap, but let's say Thierry is not sure yet,” said Tanak when asked about his championship hopes.

“We were perhaps a bit lucky that Seb [Ogier] There were problems on Friday and otherwise we couldn't do anything against the Toyotas. We gave our maximum and achieved everything we could.

“She [Toyota] have recovered, but let's see. Now it's on asphalt and we should have good road holding for it. The fight is definitely not over and we have to work hard at it.”

After initially struggling with seventh place after the first race on Friday, Neuville was happy with his return to fourth place and limited the damage to his points lead.

But the Belgian hopes to retire from the championship sooner rather than later to end his internal battle with Tanak and focus on helping Hyundai fend off Toyota in the manufacturers' title fight.

“Obviously some drivers made mistakes at the start of the race and from that point on our plan and strategy had to be adjusted again and we mainly focused on Ott,” Neuville said.

“We did what we needed, but we have to make sure we get things [the drivers’ title] This will be done quickly because there is still a manufacturers' championship to fight for and we should make sure we can fight for that title in Japan as well as we should. It is important not to fight internally and be ready to beat Toyota.

“We lost 18 points [to Toyota]and certainly there is a battle between me and Ott that is ongoing and no one will take the biggest risk, but we lost some important points against Toyota.

“She [Toyota] will bring a lot of cars and will do the same in Central Europe and we need to have a good approach and strategy as a team to make sure we don’t lose the manufacturers’ championship.”