Klinger: Ukraine here we come!

The Renault Mégane RS Robert Consani and Nicolas Klinger have been using in this year’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge is on route to Ukraine ahead of next week’s Prime Yalta Rally.

Despite retiring from the lead of the IRC 2WD Cup on Barum Czech Rally Zlín yesterday, Sunday, with a mechanical glitch, the car and engine have been given a clean bill of health for next week’s asphalt spectacular in Ukraine’s Crimea region.

“The big question was if we’d broken the engine then we could have had a problem for Yalta but everything is okay and the car is already in Poland before it goes to Ukraine,” said co-driver Klinger.

Of their exit in Zlín, Klinger said: “At the end of stage 10 the engine stopped and would not restart after it had been in ‘safe mode’ for the last eight kilometres of the stage so we had to retire. We saw a lot of blue and white smoke and we thought it was very bad but finally after the team had come and the sensor had cooled down it opened the [turbo] wastegate and it worked.”

Klinger added that the French pair had been firmly on course for victory in the two-wheel-drive division, when they hit trouble for what would have been their second triumph in succession.

“Our plan was to drive in the first loop to keep the distance to Jan [Černý] in second place,” explained Klinger. “It was working but then just at the end [of stage 10] we stopped.”

The Prime Yalta Rally takes place from 14-16 September.