Esapekka Lappi has described the blaze that has led to his retirement from Rally México, admitting he did not realize how bad the fire was.
Lappi completed El Chocolate 2 with the fifth-fastest stage time and was sitting fourth overall, but as soon as he reached the end of the 19-mile stage it was clear something was amiss.
The rear of his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC caught alight and, despite the best efforts of marshals at the end of the stage, the fire couldn’t be contained.
Lappi said he was not aware of this and continued to drive out of the stage believing the situation had been improved.
“On the stop line [was the first time I noticed the fire] to be honest,” Lappi said.
“When Janne [Ferm, Lappi’s co-driver] opened the door he said, ‘OK, this is burning now,’ I didn’t realize how big a fire it was so I tried to still drive but it didn’t shut down, so luckily we are fine.
“I don’t know what caused that to be honest, we didn’t have any issues on the stage.”
“I couldn’t see it to be honest because all the tinted window are blocking it quite well,” he added.
“I was still driving quite a long time [after the stage] to be honest [and then] I lost the brakes but then I realized it was still on fire so I jumped out.”
Team Principal Rich Millener confessed it was too early to tell what had caused the fire but said the impact of losing a World Rally Car would be deeply felt by M-Sport.
“Well we don’t really know much to be honest, we’re still in a bit of shock to be fair,” Millener said. “Losing a car is never nice to see for any team but that’s going to ask some serious questions of us for the remainder of the year.”
The second Ortega stage was canceled as a result of the incident.
Sébastien Ogier leads the rally by 8.2 seconds from Teemu Suninen with Thierry Neuville lying third.
