Block to wait on Australia restart

Ken Block will have to wait until the full extent of the damage to his Ford Fiesta RS WRC has been assessed before finding out whether he will be able to restart the second day of Rally Australia under SupeRally regulations.

The Gymkhana FOUR hero left the road on Friday’s opening test and retired when his Monster World Rally Team entry struck a tree.

Malcolm Wilson, whose M-Sport organisation runs Block’s car, said: “Ken hit a tree on the roof behind the door and took the left-rear wheel off. The damage doesn’t look too bad from the picture we’ve seen but we need to do a full inspection. The conditions were tricky today, even Sebastien Loeb got caught out.”

Block’s co-driver Alex Gelsomino tweeted: “Nasty, slippery, rainy conditions here in Oz.”