The Van Merksteijn Motorsport team have once again been hit by mechanical gremlins, with Peter van Merksteijn Jr.'s Rally Argentina coming to an end on the opening afternoon of the rally.
The Dutchman lay tenth overall after three stages, but on the final test of the morning loop his Citroen DS3 WRC lost its turbo boost only a few kilometres into the stage. Unable to fix the problem in the stage, he had to continue to the finish where he lost four minutes to his main competitors.
The spare turbo was fitted to the car during midday service in Carlos Paz. However, just a few kilometres into the first stage of the afternoon the new turbo failed as well, bringing Peter Jr.'s rally to an early end after the end of the stage.
“This is the third consecutive rally for Peter Jr. that the DS3 WRC has failed him and he hasn't reached the finish of a WRC round” said Gerard Grouve, team manager of Van Merksteijn Motorsport.
“We had good expectations for this rally and came here with the goal to finally reach the finish. The disappointment and frustration is enormous as that can't be achieved, especially during an event so far from home”
