Friday | 12 Jun 2015

Friday in Sardinia: the casualty list

Rally Italia Sardegna lived up to its punishing reputation on Friday with four World Rally Cars returning to service on trailers instead of their own four wheels.

What happened? Here's our handy guide to the day's high profile exits: 

1) Kris Meeke: SS2
The unlucky Brit was first to go, rolling his DS 3 8.7km into Friday's opening test, Grighine Sud. "I just got caught out," he said. "A disaster to be honest. Earlier in the stage I got caught out under braking and then this happened. On a right tightens over crest I missed my line as I turned in and I had no chance to make the inside of the corner. It's disappointing to say the least."

2) Robert Kubica: SS3
The Pole was next to go, just eight kilometres into the Grighine Nord stage that followed. Kubica explained: "There was a big downhill section braking into a very tight left-hander. Unfortunately there were big holes [in the road] in the braking zone. I lost my braking point because the car was jumping about and we hit the small wall and damaged the rear-left suspension."

3) Andreas Mikkelsen: SS4
Mikkelsen was doubly unlucky. His problems started when his Polo's right-rear wheel hit a hole on the Montiferru stage so hard that it broke the top mount of the suspension damper. He and co-driver Ola Floene patched up the damage at the stage end but stopped soon after on the road section to SS5. "The fuel pressure alarm came on and the car just stopped," Mikkelsen said. "I'm not exactly sure what happened. Maybe we destroyed something when we were dragging the right-rear on the stage? Sadly there was nothing we could do."

4) Dani Sordo: SS10
Last to go was Hyundai's Dani Sordo. The Spaniard had a shocking end to a positive day when he lost the rear-left wheel and hub from his i20 WRC in Friday's final stage. "We hit something in the side of a very slow corner and it took the wheel off. Really bad luck," he said.

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