Just before the start of the fourth round of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship at Rally de Portugal, Andreas Mikkelsen reported that he has been forced to resign after a positive COVID-19 infection, the Norwegian has been quite ill and now another driver has been forced to give up the start, and that is Georg Linnamäe.
The Estonian who competes for the ALM team in the WRC2 class is now the second crew in the class to drop out, with the field dropping from twelve to ten cars.
Linnamäe has been affected in the same way as Oliver Solberg‘s co-driver Aaron Johnston did prior to his WRC debut in the Arctic Lapland Rally in Finland in February this year. The same thing that happened for Johnston has now happened for Linnamäe, which is about incorrect test results.
Linnamäe’s Ukrainian co-driver Volodymyr Korsia received a positive test result before the rally, which meant that three more independent tests had to be done in order to compete in Portugal. All subsequent results showed to be negative, and the co-driver had or still has no symptoms.
Despite that situation, the Estonian pair were not allowed to enter the competition and now they have lost their chance to score some important championship points in Portugal. Just like for Mikkelsen, Rally Italia Sardegna is now waiting next in line for the crew.
