Top Gear wins Wales Rally GB

This event, I just don't know what to tell you really. We've had a bit of everything: sun on Saturday gave way to fog and rain on Sunday, the stages (I didn't even think this was possible) became even rougher, we've had mechanical issues, driver error and all sorts. But here's the important bit: we WON our class! So we took a bog standard Hyundai i20 1.2 Classic 3dr from factory fresh to a class win at Wales Rally GB - one of the toughest WRC events - in under a year. €

That speaks volumes for the work done by 586 Motorsport who have built, maintained and run it for us, and the solidity of the original product. I know it doesn't look standard, but underneath the spare WRC panels this is still essentially a road car. The main reason day three was so rough is that all the international class cars had been through each stage twice before we got there. It was like trench warfare from start to finish.

The 4wd stuff had dug so deep into the Kinmel Park stage that it was nearly underground, but I couldn't care because the car that went off ahead of me was a V8 Vauxhall Firenza driven by Jimmy McRae. It was as we were waiting at Kinmel that we heard Rob Tuer, the chap who was leading our B2 class by a country mile, go through. His Super 1600 MG sounded dog-awful. Co-driver Jack Morton and I exchanged a meaningful glance.

Kinmel was another country park stage - easy to drive and unlikely to catch you out. Alwen and Brenig, the last two stages of the rally, were a different matter. Welsh forests are full of traps. There'll be grip on one corner, but you'll turn in identically at the next and get nothing. On the whole I couldn't believe the purchase the DMack tyres found on slick rock and thick mud, nor the fact we didn't suffer a single puncture, especially on the last day.

The general theme was sloppy mud over harsh rock, carved by the passage of snorting WRC cars. I think there was a moment or two when the sump guard wasn't grinding the surface, but I can't be sure...