Sousa to restart on home IRC qualifier

Bernardo Sousa will restart on the final day of Rali Vinho Madeira following his fiery exit from Friday’s opening leg of round eight of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Sousa, who hails from Madeira, was forced to retire on stage five when leaking liquid in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta’s engine bay caused a fire to ignite. Although he and co-driver Nuno Silva were able to put out the fire with help from another crew when their own fire extinguisher ran out, a significant amount of electrical wiring was badly damaged.

“The car does not look the best and we have not been able to replace all the wires because we are not a works team and we don’t have the spares here,” said Sousa’s engineer Mathias Aubespin. “We hope for the best but it’s possible Bernardo won’t be able to do all the stages due to the damage.”

Sousa’s mechanics worked until 0100hrs on Saturday morning to complete the repairs, 30 minutes before parc fermé closed. He will run 16th on the road.