Van Merksteijn Jr retires in Argentina

Peter van Merksteijn Jr’s Rally Argentina is over after the Dutchman retired from the world championship event following the recurrence of a turbo problem on Friday afternoon.

The 28-year-old was in 10th overall when he was slowed on stage four by a loss of turbo boost pressure to the extent he stopped in the stage to attempt repairs, losing four minutes in the process.

A replacement turbo was fitted to his Citroen DS3 WRC during the 30-minute service halt in Villa Carlos Paz on Friday afternoon. However, the new unit failed after just a handful of kilometres of the repeated El Mirador-San Lorenzo stage. He soldiered through the run but elected to retire shortly afterwards.

“This is the third consecutive rally for Peter Jr that the DS3 WRC has failed him and he hasn’t reached the finish of a WRC round,” said Gerard Grouve, team manager of Van Merksteijn Motorsport. “We had good expectations for this rally and came here with the goal to finally reach the finish. The disappointment and frustration is enormous as that can’t be achieved, especially during an event so far from home.”

Van Merksteijn and co-driver Eddy Chevaillier, from Belgium, had begun Friday’s stages with high hopes after they set the ninth fastest time through the first El Mirador-San Lorenzo test. But their encouraging start wasn’t to last when they retired a few hours later.