MINI satisfied despite Meeke retirement

MINI WRC Team technical director Dave Wilcock says his organisation has plenty of reason to be satisfied despite Kris Meeke retiring from Rally d’Italia Sardegna for a second consecutive day.

Briton Meeke, who went off the road on day one due to a throttle glitch, stopped on stage 10 with a water leak and retired from the day. He is expected to return to competition under SupeRally regulations on Sunday when the world championship counter concludes.

Meanwhile, Dani Sordo, completed Saturday’s morning loop of tests in sixth overall in the second factory MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

“Kris has had a water leak,” said Wilcock. “In order to save the engine he stopped on the stage but until we get the car back [to service] we don’t know what has caused it. It’s probably not a coincidence that he had an accident yesterday. We think it’s a broken water pipe but until we see the car we don’t know.”

On Sordo’s efforts, Wilcock said he was very pleased with how the Spanish driver has performed so far.

“We’re very happy with Dani’s performance, he’s pleased with the car and has had nothing negative to say,” said Wilcock. “For him it’s all okay and we’re obviously very pleased.”