Ford Racing motorsport manager Gerard Quinn says that the realisation of losing both cars on stages five and six of Vodafone Rally de Portugal is still sinking in - but he hopes to see both Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg restart on day three.
“Disappointed doesn’t come close to how we’re all feeling,” said Quinn. “It’s actually quite hard to believe what’s happened: it’s still sinking in. To go from the position we were in last night, first and second, to this...it’s unbelievable, particularly with them going out one after another.”
Latvala and then Solberg were both in front when they retired on consecutive stages. Early reports suggest that both factory Fiestas are largely undamaged, and Quinn is anxious for both drivers to return to action tomorrow.
“I very much hope that we will see them both out tomorrow and from what we know now, I see no reason why that shouldn’t be the case,” he said. “In these situations, the only thing you can do is just get straight back on immediately. There’s still a very long way to go.”
The mistakes from the Ford drivers constitute a big stroke of luck for Citroen’s championship leader Sebastien Loeb, who crashed out on Thursday night. Ford’s hopes now rest with privateers Evgeny Novikov and Mads Ostberg, who are second and third respectively after seven stages of round four of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.