'Thierry Neuville' Joins Qatar M-Sport WRT for 2013, along with Evgeny Novikov

M-Sport has made an announcement that Thierry Neuville, who drove for Citroen Junior WRT in the Citroen DS3 WRC for 2012 season, will be joining Qatar M-Sport WRT for the upcoming 2013 WRC season. He will be sitting behind the wheel of the Ford Fiesta RS WRC for all the 13 rounds along with Nasser himself and so does the young Russian gun Evgeny Novikov, who drove for M-Sport WRT for 2012.

Thierry Neuville is not new to M-Sport, as he had piloted a Ford Fiesta in the 2008 WRC season, though in a 2-wheel drive version of the car, and says, “It is a great honour for me to represent Qatar and M-Sport on all 13 rounds of next season’s championship. Thanks to a great ‘learning’ year in the WRC, I am confident that I will be able to achieve some great results alongside M-Sport and my new team mates.

I would especially like to thank Malcolm [Wilson] for his confidence in me, and also my friend Nasser [Al-Attiyah] for his fantastic support. I am now focussed on preparing for Rally Monte-Carlo and really looking forward to the start of this new adventure.”

Evgeny Novikov present at the moment was equally thrilled about the news of his seat for the new season, and quipped, “I am very glad to be representing Qatar and M-Sport next year. I would like to express huge gratitude to all those who supported me and believed in me: my mentor Mikhail Lepekhov, Malcolm Wilson, my family and my fans.

In 2013 we will fight at the top level and do our best to please those who have supported us all these years.”

Thierry's new challenge also revealed that the Citroen Racing boss Yves Matton was also keen in offering him a seat in for atleast 8 rounds for the 2013 season.