Hyundai's win: luck or progress?

Sebastien Ogier sprayed champagne on his Volkswagen Polo R WRC for the first time 636 days after Dr Ulrich Hackenberg announced the firm's commitment to the World Rally Championship. Hyundai did it on Sunday, 576 after its i20 got the public green light. That's 60 days sooner.

Believe me, the maths took me a worrying amount of time to do. And I've checked it. Twice. So I know it's right. Probably.

But I was struck by how small the difference is. I thought Hyundai's gap from announcement to glory was way shorter. Then I thought back to the two launches and, more pertinently, what followed.

Early May, 2011. Volkswagen packs up its glitz and glamour from the side of the Olbia harbour and goes home to Hannover ready to fire-up the Polo R WRC.

Mic off, Paris Motorshow speech done for Hyundai Motor Europe MD Mark Hall in late September 2012 and the Koreans go home. And, er... well, they went home.

Three months on from the Volkswagen announcement, Marcus Gronholm is driving a Polo R WRC test car. It's very fair to assume something, in some shape or form, had been running for a considerable while before this. And running out of Volkswagen's super-impressive Hannover facility. Yes, the very one that had not long before churned out the history-making, Dakar-dominating Race Touareg.

Hyundai's return to the WRC was rather low-key to begin with

Three months after Hyundai's big news and I was testing the i20 WRC.

Or, at least, I was on the outskirts of Frankfurt with a nameless, but hopelessly enthusiastic Korean chap trying desperately to do doughnuts in a gutless i20 with a stick-on wing and old BF Goodrich boots.

As for facilities, there weren't any. The white Hyundai bitsa was being serviced out of the back of a van with the easy-up tied down with jerry cans.

Six months later, a slightly more representative i20 WRC was tested and a month after that - we're now up to June last year - Hyundai Motorsport opened the doors to its factory in Alzenau.

It's a big factory. I know, I've been there. But it looked even bigger just over 12 months ago, because there was nothing in it. One car, a handful of people and a couple of truck-loads of kit does not make a manufacturer entry into the World Rally Championship.

But what happened next did.

What happened next was one of the most intensive research and development programmes in the history of the WRC. Forget 60 days difference. In reality, the i20 WRC was made into a winner in around 14 months. That's more like 271 days difference.

And, we shouldn't forget that for eight of those 14 months, Hyundai has been competing in the championship, testing as it goes. Volkswagen spent the 20 months between announcement and arrival bagging thousands upon thousands of testing kilometres. The test Polo R WRC was rarely sitting still long enough to go cold. And if something broke on the car, there was no need to worry about the restrictive nature of superally regulations, Volkswagen just bolted another day on the end of the running time, fixed the problem and returned to the road.

It's for that reason that the Polo R WRC finished second on its debut. And neither i20 WRC made it through the first day on its debut.

The Hyundai team knows where it's at; this really is the development year. Everything is being made up as the team goes along. And what a fantastic job it is making of it.

Neuville owed his Rally Mexico podium to the bottle of beer he was given after the rally-closing Power Stage

When Thierry Neuville stepped onto the podium in Mexico for the first time, it was on a wing, a prayer and a bottle of Corona - literally in the case of the beer. The Belgian was five minutes down on Sebastien Ogier and the cars looked in different leagues. Four rounds on in Poland and Neuville was back in third place again. And this time the gap was down to two minutes.

And two rounds on and he's leap-frogged the podium's second step and gone straight to the top.

It's fair to say the win wasn't realistic in normal circumstances - and that's a reflection on the team, not the driver rolling his car six times into the vineyard just hours before it was scheduled to go over the start ramp.

But look at the difference between Neuville and leader Jari-Matti Latvala on Saturday night - he was just a minute down on the Polo. See a pattern emerging? The i20's getting quicker and quicker, closer and closer.

The win flattered Hyundai, but at the rate the car is progressing, there won't be any need for deception soon enough.

The only minor fly in the ointment is the onset of new homologation next season, which means Volkswagen, M-Sport and Citroen will take a step forward with more engine work and generally faster cars. Just when Hyundai catches up and is absolutely ready to challenge for a win on merit, the goal posts will have been picked up and moved. Worry not, though, Korean car fans - Hyundai's own 2015 challenger will be coming by the middle of the season.

The worry lines are, however, deepening on the faces of senior team personnel when you talk about debut for dates for the all-new motor. Middle of the season could yet be found to be slightly optimistic.

Having quantified and contextualised Hyundai's performance, it's now time to just say well done. And who cares about where they are, where they might be and what this really means.

Neuville held his nerve to win Rally Germany after Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke crashed out of the lead on Sunday

Who cares?

They won. They just... won!

And what a way to do it. Volkswagen might have won second time out and 12 times on the bounce, but they'd certainly trade some of those stats for what Michel Nandan and his men did in Trier on Sunday: a one-two in Germany; my how Hannover hankered for that.

Volkswagen must wonder what it's got to do to win at home. The team that has dominated at the world's remaining four corners doesn't seem able to buy a win in its own backyard. You had to feel for them, especially Latvala who redefined humility as he stood before the 54th promise this won't happen again..."

It's often defeat and the way a team responds to the wrong result that bares its true face and feelings. If that's the case, Volkswagen was, in fact, a team of winners in Germany. The warmth with which it applauded Hyundai's win was an exceptional show of sport.

And an honest and heart-felt appreciation of what Hyundai had achieved.

Good on you both.