The Spaniard Dani Sordo who was running eight in Rally Japan was forced to bring his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 to a sudden stop around 16 kilometers into the Isegami’s Tunnel stage on Friday morning when smoke started billowing from the rear of the car.
Sordo and co-driver Cándido Carrera managed to escape the car uninjured before he attempted to douse the flames with a handheld extinguisher but the car couldn´t be saved.
A short time later, organizers confirmed the stage had been canceled on safety grounds for the remaining crews, with the delays caused by the fire also leading to the following stage three being canceled as well from the itinerary.
Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT deputy team principal Julien Moncet says at the moment it is hard to know what was causing the fire but the accident will be investigated.
“The crew is okay and that is the main thing, it is a sight that nobody wants to see – a huge drama, huge disappointment. At the moment, we have no further information other than what we have seen from the videos. Unfortunately, I think it will be difficult to find out the real cause of this because I think there will be nothing left of the car.”
“The right rear is the side of the exhaust – that is the only thing we can think about, but it could be many reasons and maybe something completely different, we will try to analyze what is left and figure it out but I am not sure we will find something.”
