Steering glitch slows Delecour

Francois Delecour is hoping that the powersteering problem that slowed his progress on stages 14 and 15 of Rallye Monte-Carlo this afternoon won’t reoccur on Saturday night’s two stages in the mountains above the Principality.

Delecour, back in the World Rally Championship for the first time since 2002, is an impressive sixth overall in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Speaking at the evening service halt on Monaco’s harbor front, the 49-year-old form Rallye Monte-Carlo winner said: “We had some problems with the powersteering. I think the problem was with the pin, which made the steering very stiff and really difficult in the twisty and narrow corners. But the problem is stable. It was not getting worse and we’ll get it fixed in service, but we lost a lot of time. I think we could have set a really quick time otherwise.”

Heading Delecour in the overall classification is team-mate Evgeny Novikov. The Russian, who is in fifth position, is tackling his first Rallye Monte-Carlo and has impressed throughout.

“We’re not making any changes in service and we’ll try hard this evening,” said Novikov. “The stages are very difficult but for sure I’m enjoying it a lot.”