Former Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Francois Delecour has told Wrc.com that he’s lucky to still be in the event after a huge moment on stage six this morning wiped the front spoiler off his Visit Romania-backed Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
Delecour, who was struggling to hear co-driver Dominique Savignoni’s pace notes due to an intercom problem, braked too late for a corner and hit a wall. Fortunately the contact effectively bounced the Fiesta back onto the road.
“I just couldn’t hear his note: after we hit the wall, I was sure that our rally was over,” said Delecour. “I couldn’t believe that we had got away with it, and the damage was relatively minor.”
But Delecour’s incident caused a new problem that affected him all the way to service in Valence after stage seven.
“I was surprised at just how much the aerodynamic balance was affected by having no front spoiler,” said Delecour, competing on his first World Rally Championship event since 2002. “Everywhere we had understeer and problems with the handling; this was new to me because I have never driven the car in this condition. But I’m having a fantastic time and I am really looking forward to the rest of the event. Considering that myself and Dominique only do about one rally a year together, we have to be very happy with our performance.”
Delecour is currently seventh overall, just ahead of the factory MINI of Pierre Campana.