Kruuda out to gain experience on restart

Karl Kruuda says he is out to improve his knowledge of the demanding Rallye Sanremo stages when he restarts the Intercontinental Rally Challenge qualifier today following his exit on Friday’s Ronde night stage.

The highly rated teenager from Estonia began the 44-kilometre test in 11th position overall at the wheel of his ME3 Rally Team ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000. But a loss of brakes approximately halfway through the test caused him to slide into a pavement before he struck a wall, which left his car with a broken front-right wheel.

“I was out of the road but I couldn’t come back because the wheel was broken,” said Kruuda. “I’m a little bit tired now because I didn’t get back to the service until 03:00hrs. Now I just need to get experience of the stages.”

Kruuda is tackling Rallye Sanremo for the first time this week and admitted before his accident that he was struggling to adapt to the narrow and twisty nature of the roads.

“I have never done a rally like this, it’s not easy,” said Kruuda. “I’m losing too much time and I want to be quicker so it’s frustrating.”