Photo by: XPB Images
Misfortune strikes Oliveira again in Sardinia
The Brazilian driver was forced to drop out of the race. Tomorrow he re-joins the competition.
After his early retirement yesterday, the Brazil WRT driver Daniel Oliveira was beaten again by Sardinia’s tough roads and had to abandon the second day of action in the Rally d’Italia, fifth round of the World Rally Championship.
The test being held in the Mediterranean island is proving to be one of the most demanding rounds of the season and it’s becoming a nightmare for many drivers. During day two, the BWRT crew members Daniel Oliveira and Carlos Magalhaes had to face many troubles in a race where everything is at risk but a faultless drive.
Like yesterday, on his second attempt to conquer the Italian round, Oliveira couldn’t tip the balance in his favour. The Brazilian started the second day with much enthusiasm and with the single aim of gaining confidence and kilometres on board the WRC version of the MINI John Cooper Works.
However, at the very beginning of the race Daniel found himself again in trouble. After completing the second split on SS9, Coiluna 1 (29.35km), one of the drive shafts broke down. Although he was able to complete the stage, the crew couldn’t fix it. Hopefully, the rest of the car was perfect.
That’s why this Rally d’Italia is far from being over for Daniel and Carlos since they will have another chance tomorrow when they re-join the race under the Super Rally regulations.
Brazil WRT driver Daniel Oliveira said:
“I can’t believe it, it happened again. After yesterday’s experience we started the first stage trying to be more cautious than ever. The first two splits on SS9 were fast so we decided to hold that pace. Suddenly, we felt something was wrong with the car.
We pulled over and we saw that one of the drive shafts was damaged. We decided to slow down and once we completed the stage we tried to fix it by all means, but it was worthless, we couldn’t continue.
This rally is becoming a nightmare for me but I won’t give up, so tomorrow I will get in the car and give the most of myself. This is not over yet. I know it turns out to be frustrating sometimes but the main objective is still to gain experience in my first WRC season”.
More news of the event
The leader of the race Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) managed to keep the gap over his opponents. The Frenchman is being 28.3 seconds faster than the Finish driver Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) whereas his team-mate Sebastien Ogier (Citroen) is is 34.6 further back.
-source: brazil
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