Reigning world rally champion Thierry Neuville has retired from the Central European Rally after a crash with a bridge forced officials to cancel stage 15.
Neuville had started Sunday’s leg sitting in seventh position, but just four kilometres into the 12.37km Beyond Borders stage, the Hyundai driver hit trouble. Neuville’s i20 N slid wide entering a narrow bridge, hitting a hay bale that was protecting the edge of the structure. It resulted in a heavy impact with the side of the bridge, causing severe damage to the front of the car, which then blocked the road.
Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were able to exit the vehicle and were reported to be OK following the incident. The pair will now be checked over by the medical team.
"I think the pace note was just a bit too fast and it was very narrow," Neuville said. "I turned and I understeered on the entry, and the corner turned a bit more than I expected and it was too late - there was no time to react. It was quite a big impact, It is painful but we will have a check now.”
The stage was red-flagged to allow marshals to remove the stricken car blocking the entrance to the bridge, although a significant amount of fluid had poured from the car onto the road surface.
After evaluating the situation, rally control opted to cancel the stage, signalling crews to head to stage 16.
Only three cars had successfully completed the stage before the decision was made to cancel the stage.
Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier had set the pace, having rejoined the rally after crashing out on stage 10 on Saturday. Ogier was 8.6s faster than M-Sport’s Josh McErlean while the sister M-Sport Ford Puma of Gregoire Munster was 12.6s shy of Ogier’s pace.
Ogier did reveal that the stage, which ran with the ambient temperature reaching 1C, was tricky due to dust on the road.
"Let's see what we can do. This one was not easy with the dust. Big thanks to the team, the car is back to 100% again," said Ogier.
The fight for Super Sunday points and the overall victory will now be contested over the three remaining asphalt stages. Toytoa's Kalle Rovanpera leads the rally by 36.3s from Hyundai's Ott Tanak with Eflyn Evans in third, a further 8.4s in arrears.
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