Martin Prokop has been hit with a 20-second time penalty after leaving first service two minutes late.
The Czech’s M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 suffered a broken front-left driveshaft on Thursday night’s Lemesos Super Special Stage, which had to be changed in the 10-minute service halt in Limassol this morning.
Despite his team’s best efforts, they were unable to complete the complicated repair in the time available.
“It happened after the jump,” said Prokop, one of the pre-event favourites to win the Intercontinental Rally Challenge qualifier. “It’s a rough rally and for sure things like this can happen. We lost 12 seconds on the stage but this is not a disaster because there is still a long way to go.”
Franz Wittmann’s Interwetten Racing Peugeot 207 is still in service and being frantically worked on by his ROMO Motorsporttechnik mechanics after the car’s heat transfer unit broke on landing after the jump during Thursday’s superspecial stage.
“I was too quick over the jump – we will be lucky to be less than 10 minutes late leaving,” said the Austrian.