Ken Block will return to action on the final three stages of Rally Guanajuato Mexico today.
The Monster World Rally Team ace retired on Saturday when he damaged his Ford Fiesta RS WRC’s steering and suspension striking a tree stump 13 kilometres into the second 23.27-kilometre Duarte stage.
“It was a right corner that tightened and I got a little bit wide on the first time through,” said the American. “I tried to keep a tighter liner for the second pass but there was this stump hidden from view. It caught it and it broke the steering arm and the track control arm.”
Block, who suffered a miserable start to the rally when he failed to tackle Thursday night’s Guanajuato Street Stage due to an electrical fault, continued: “The stage was going real nice for me and all day I’d been racing clean and having no moments at all. That it ended is one of those disappointing things, a bit silly because I wasn’t over-driving.
“Although we’ve not had the luck on this event my consolation is my times were only 1.1 seconds per kilometre off the top four guys and that’s the best I’ve been driving so far. I just need to minimise the problems and we’ll do okay.”
While Block will restart on Sunday, the electrical fault that forced Matthew Wilson to drop out on Saturday morning cannot be rectified on site and the Briton won’t return in his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta. Wilson ran as high as fourth on the North Americann rally.