Thierry Neuville unveils what caused him to retire from Safari Rally Kenya on Friday afternoon despite his efforts to fix his i20N's problem.
The Belgian driver was in sixth place overall after Stage 3 as he suffered from a front-right tyre damage, but he managed to gain two positions after SS4 and to keep his fourth place overall after the end of Stage 5. However, he was forced to stop 7.9 Km on an access road of Stage 6 with a broken suspension. The incident happened when he passed throughout a compression and afterwards the front-left suspension was broken with just one stage remaining for completing his day. He will restart on Saturday under the regulations of Rally2, but he will receive time penalties for his re-entry and will start first on the road tomorrow. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that he said to DirtFish that he lost a screw from the top mount which had as a result for the damper to come looser and for the driveshaft and the power-steering to be taken off.
"I’m very disappointed to be honest" Neuville said.
"Unfortunately we had to retire in the second stage of the afternoon, which isn’t good for our championship fight.
"There was no warning at all; just before a left junction, the damper came out of its position and the top mount came loose under braking, which was the end of the rally for us.
"It was a shame as we hoped our puncture in the morning was the end of our bad luck for the weekend.
"With the conditions here, anything can happen, and now we have to analyse if there is an opportunity to return tomorrow and get back into the points".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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