Mikko Hirvonen's co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen has described the moment when their Ford Fiesta RS WRC suffered a right-rear driveshaft failure on today's second stage.
The Finns had climbed to fourth overall with the fastest time on stage 14 only for the component to fail on the very next stage, which dropped them back to fifth place behind Britons Matthew Wilson and Scott Martin.
“It just gave up 10 kilometres before the end,” said Lehtinen. “It was a very twisty section, steep uphill and steep downhill. Basically we hardly got up one steep hill after a hairpin left and we thought ‘do we get up this or not’.”
Lehtinen said the first inkling of a problem was when he and Hirvonen heard noises from the rear of the car. “It was five corners before,” said Lehtinen. “We hoped for the best but the problem showed itself quite quickly.”
The world championship leaders hope to make up for their earlier disappointments by winning the 31.04-kilometre Power Stage later this afternoon.
“We’d like to keep our position at the top of the championship so we will push hard to go for three points,” said Lehtinen. “I hope Citroen are playing it safe with a comfortable lead but you never know what Loeb decides to do.
“From the first pass through the stage I don’t think it’s getting too tough. It dried out pretty much after the recce but there will be ruts. Because it’s twisty the speed is not so much that means the cars are not under such big stress.”
Despite the various setbacks encountered in Portugal, Lehtinen said there is reason to remain positive: “We’ve proven we have some pace, which is important, although there hasn’t really been chance to prove if it’s pace enough.”
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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