Friday | 12 Sep 2014

Radiator leak Worries Ogier

Coates Hire Rally Australia leader Sebastien Ogier has revealed that he had to top-up a leaking radiator throughout Friday afternoon’s stages with water from his drinking bottle.

Ogier discovered the leak at the end of the fourth stage, and admitted it gave him cause for concern as he powered from fourth place to end the day with a lead of 0.5sec.

Back at service this evening Ogier said: “I had some alarm this afternoon. For an unknown reason I had a leak and was losing water - luckily not too much. I managed to finish every stage and refill it enough to come back here. Let’s say I’m really happy to be here tonight.”

Ogier told wrc.com that he first noticed a pool of water when he was walked around his Polo R after Friday’s first repeated stage.

“I could see we had a small leak, but I didn’t find the place where it was coming from," he said. "I couldn’t fix it, so instead I kept topping up the level as much as I could with water from my CamelBak. I used about a litre.”

But despite his cooling system worries, and the handicap of running first through the loose gravel stages, the defending champion said the day had been better than expected.

“Before the start I knew that I just had to focus on my drive and not care about the times of the others. I expected to lose time, so I’m really happy with the result of the day. It’s incredibly good.

“I managed to make some good difference on the first stage. The benefit that half the stage was already clean from the Shakedown helped me. I pushed and managed to make a good gap that saved my day at the end.”

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