Zoom A brief participation for Sola in Russia

Dani Sola expected much from Rally Russia, fourth round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The Spaniard knew his Grande Punto S2000 had all it needed to deliver a strong performance against the Peugeot cars, and a podium finish was a true possibility for him.

But an incident early on changed all his plans when an oil pressure problem on the third stage of the event transformed podium possibilities into a Russian retirement. Sola was fifth in the overall standings at that point, but to his great dismay, a part of the Grande Punto's engine system refused to go any further.

Such a situation was obviously a big disappointment for Sola, who had even managed to sign a fifth-best time on the opening runs although he was driving with a punctured tyre.

"We had decided to go for a big attack right from the first stage, because we knew the surface would be much better on the first run than afterwards," he explained. "Despite a puncture on the last kilometres we were sixth-best, and fifth-best on the following stage."

"All was going well until the third stage." Sola said. "As we were nearing the end, the oil pressure indicator lit up and the cabin filled with smoke. We had to stop immediately."

The Procar engineers quickly deteced the origin of the failure, which came from a broken hose. Not willing to risk damaging the engine further, the team decided against letting Sola return to the trail under SupeRally rules.

"It is very unfortunate to be the victim of such a failure," added Dani Sola. "All the team, and our partners in particular, invested a lot for us to be able to sign a good result."

"It's possible that the quality control of the parts we used was not done correctly, and that will have to be addressed to avoid such incidents from happening in the future," he underlined.

Daniel BASTIEN
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