Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux has explained a bizarre “messy" startline issue that has severely dented his Rally Sweden victory hopes after starting stage 11 without his helmet properly fastened.
Fourmaux had been in the thick of an intense five-way fight for victory, having started the day in fourth, 7.9s adrift of leader Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
Hyundai’s new signing, who finished third in Monte Carlo last month, dropped 23.6s in stage 11 that began in unusual circumstances. Fourmaux appeared to not be ready for the start and then had to stop shortly after the startline to tighten his helmet strap and belts.
“I was not ready and I realised six or seven seconds before the start that my helmet [strap] was not tight, and I had to put it on, but then we had to lose time because [co-driver] Alex [Coria] told me we only had 20 seconds to get to the start line,” said Fourmaux.
“It was really messy. This kind of thing shouldn’t happen, we have marshals who are there to check if we have got everything and the marshal was there, but they didn’t say anything. It is my responsibility but there were no belts [on], no gloves, nothing and I should have checked the time, but Alex told me [we had] 10 seconds to go.”
Fourmaux dropped to sixth, some 31.4s adrift of the leader Evans, who headed into Saturday’s midday service with a 2.8s lead over Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta.
Given Fourmaux stopped during the stage for safety reasons, he is hoping officials will intervene and offer him some time back to compensate for his stoppage.
“It is not great. First of all there is a lot of frustration after that and then I had to stop in the stage to tighten the belts and go again, and we have been fighting over one or two seconds since yesterday, and we are right there and then we have this stupid thing. It is really frustrating,” added Fourmaux.
“We will see what we can do after that as it is a safety reason more than anything else, so I decided to stop to make sure it is safe, so let’s see if we can gain some time back.
“We had a really great feeling with the car this morning, the pace was correct. Apart from the issue at the startline all of the rest was going well. It is really tricky when you lose 20 seconds when you are fighting with 10 seconds between five drivers yesterday. It is not easy to catch up but let’s see.”
Fourmaux’s rally ambitions were brought to an abrupt halt later in stage 13. Eager to regain the lost time from the morning, the Frenchman blitzed the previous test before finding a snowbank in the Sarjoliden test.
Fourmaux lost the rear of his i20 N which hit a snowbank, 900 metres into the stage, that sucked the car into deep snow leaving it beached on the edge of the road. Fourmaux and co-driver Coria attempted to dig the car out of the deep snow.
It proved to be an eventful morning for Hyundai as world champion Thierry Neuville moved from fifth to third following Fourmaux’s initial issue and a suspected mechanical problem for team-mate Tanak.
Tanak ended Saturday’s morning loop with steam and moisture coming from the bonnet of his i20 N Rally1 car as he dropped from third to fourth overall, 12.7s adrift of leader Evans.
“This morning chassis-wise I had a bit better feeling and the balance had improved a bit. It was a bit more playful in the car but on the second stage we started to lose out a bit and it was the same on the third one,” said Tanak.
“As you can see some liquid is coming out of the car, and why and where I don’t know, so we need to see. I know the engine is running, so we have to see. Our people are clever and smart so we need to trust them.
“I believe everything is possible at the moment. Let’s see what’s happening and we go from there.”
