Esapekka Lappi explains his incident in Stage 11 of Rally Mexico which led him to retire from the lead.
The Finn driver was leading Rally Mexico at the end of Friday, but he had an accident on the opening stage of Saturday morning as he hit a bank with the rear right of his i20N resulting in spinning and eventually hitting a pillar. This pillar stroke the roof of his car while the engine bay caught fire due to to the wires. Gus Greensmith was the following car after him and helped to extinguish the fire by giving the extinguisher that he carried to his Skoda. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that Hyundai confrmed that he will not continue on the final day of Rally Mexico.
"There was a short left over crest, but the previous corner is a bit on the right with the cut", Lappi said.
"I think I was a bit stuck on the cut, and later on the entry on the left here, and then the outside of the corner narrows and I touched that one and it span me out, and I hit the pole with the rear.
"Actually in the beginning there was nothing.
"So we jumped out, we pressed OK then I pressed that the road is blocked, but I think after half a minute or one minute it started to burn from the engine bay.
"I finished my extinguisher and also tried the car system but nothing helped.
"Luckily I got the extinguisher from Gus which then helped, I managed to shut down the fire.
"I saw some blue fire on the wires, so I’m not actually sure is it anymore power because there was some sparks and blue fire on the pole.
"But I had a helmet on and everything so I didn’t give a f**k you know, I just tried to shut down the fire!
"Maybe it was stupid but when you have a lot of adrenaline you just sometimes don’t think about yourself too much".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
Post a Comment