Sébastien Ogier says he is unlikely to restart on the second leg of Rally d’Italia-Sardegna following his retirement on the opening stage of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge counter.
The 26-year-old stopped to change a front-left puncture early in the stage before pulling up seven kilometres from the finish of the 28.66-kilometre Monte Grighine run with an overheating problem in his Peugeot 207 S2000.
“It was a fast section near the start where we had the puncture,” said Ogier. “I went over a bit of grass and realised these tyres are less resistant [to punctures] than the tyres we have in the World Rally Championship. It was not a big problem but seven kilometres before the end we had an alarm about the engine temperature and we stopped. We tried to check the problem with the cooling of the engine but realised it was impossible to fix on the stage because we had no more water in the engine. I don’t think we will restart tomorrow, besides there is no reason.”
He added: “This is rally, it’s a mechanical sport and it can be frustrating. It’s a bad feeling to finish the rally before end of first stage.”
Ogier is set to return to IRC action on the Geko Ypres Rally in Belgium from 24-26 June.