Early Acropolis exit for Araujo

"When we tried to restart the car it wouldn’t restart"

By Franck Drui

19 June 2011 - 08:37
Early Acropolis exit for Araujo

Armindo Araujo’s bid for a points’ finish on the Acropolis Rally is over after the Portuguese retired his MINI John Cooper Works WRC from the world championship qualifier on Saturday.

The double Production Car world champion reached the service halt in Loutraki after day two’s first three stages in 14th position and reported a powersteering fault on his Motorsport Italia-run car.

However, when his mechanics attempted to start his car’s engine it refused to fire to the extent Araujo went over the permitted time limit.

Motorsport Italia’s Marco Pastorino explained: “We serviced the car as usual, there were no problems but when we tried to restart the car it wouldn’t restart. We tried everything but it just wouldn’t start at all. Then we were too late for the time. Unfortunately we will not be able to restart.”

Araujo described a feeling of frustration following a troubled second day in Greece.

“It’s never 100 per cent,” he said. “We lose the powersteering and it’s all the time problems. It’s difficult in this way and I’m a little bit disappointed. It’s a new car and with a new car you don’t have all the spares to test, everything is new and a lot of things happen during the races. It’s difficult and harder than I thought it would be after two very good seasons. From my side it’s difficult to change anything.”

WRC

Search

Motorsport news

Pics

Videos