Adrien Fourmaux is being frustrated with how his Acropolis Rally ended as he still does not have an answer about the punctures he got in Greece which had a bad impact to his championship points.
The Frenchman started Acropolis Rally in a positive way as he set the fastest time on the first two Fruday stages and stole the lead from his teammate Thierry Neuville after the end of SS3. However, he lost three positions in Stage 4 due to a front right puncture which means that he dropped to fourth overall. He stayed out of trouble and won only one stage on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, he was the fastest driver in Stage 9 while he had huge sideways moment at 10Km of SS10. Although he did not push to the maximum on Saturday afternoon, he picked up another fornt right puncture in Stage and stopped to change it resulting in dropping from third to sixth while he finished the penulatimate day of Acropolis Rally at fourth postion and was ahead of the fifth Josh McErlean for one second. On Sunday, he set the fastest time on the opening stage of the day and was leading the SuperSunday standings until Stage 15 where he suffered from a front left puncture and lost two positions on the classification. In total, Fourmaux picked up four punctures as the last one happened in Powerstage where the rear right tyre was delaminated. After the end of Powerstage, Fourmaux was fifth overall and behind Josh McErlean, but he slipped behind Sami Pajari and Elfyn Evans as the stewards gave to him and Alex Coria a one-minute time penalty after the end of Acropolis Rally as the last one did not fasten his seat belt correctly in Stage 12 when the crew stopped to change a puncture. The time penalty affected his position as he dropped two places and finished seventh while he has now the same points as Thierry Neuville has on the championship and both of them share the fifth place.
"I think we deserved much more from Acropolis Rally", Fourmaux said.
"While I know it is a lottery, it felt like whenever I pushed I avoided punctures, but whenever I tried to be careful, I would get one. It’s almost unbelievable.
"In the end, it’s a huge shame, but overall it has been a positive rally.
"We had the pace and were fighting for the win at the beginning before our issues.
"It’s frustrating for the championship, as I had high hopes of closing the gap in the points, and it hasn’t gone to plan.
"However, there is plenty for us to take into Estonia and beyond".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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