The car was eventually towed out and into the service bay where the
recalcitrant beast was finally fired up and the crew left service 5 minutes
late. Apparently, while parked up overnight, dampness had seeped into the fuel
system and electronics. The boys set to once again.
Unfortunately, the Fiesta wouldn’t fire up again at the first
refuel and although Tänak and Mõlder were able to get the car running, they couldn’t
make the start of the morning's first stage in the allocated time.
After the crew drove the car back to service, the team let her
bathe in the Mexican sun – drying the components before they embarked on Rally
2.1. Mission accomplished, a faulty sensor was found to be the culprit.
In the sister M-Sport Fiesta RS WRC, Elfyn Evans and Daniel
Barritt climbed into a strong fourth place over the course of the day. The
Welshman has delivered his strategy to the letter this weekend – pushing when
confident and adopting a more cautious approach when not.
Elfyn
said: “Today has been a good day overall but it has
been more about being reliable than anything else. We didn't find a great
rhythm this morning, but then Dani [Sordo] had some problems which really took
the pressure off. This is such a difficult rally and tomorrow will be all about
making sure we get safely to the finish. Of course anything can still happen,
but I think fourth place would be another great result for us on only our
second time here."
I’ll
let Ott Tänak have the last words: "The
boys did an awesome job last night so it was a real shame for everyone not to
be able to start the stages today. In the end it was just a really small detail
that stopped us this morning – literally just a sensor! It's fixed now and
we're ready to get out in the morning.”
When Tänak’s
Fiesta was retrieved from the watery depths some 10 hours after its unwanted
dooking, he found that his lucky duck mascot, which was strapped to the
handbrake, was still there – but she won’t be returning to duty.
“She was wet and dirty
and females don’t like that. They enjoy spas and sunshine, so she won’t be
going back in the car,” he said.
