M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet Rally Finland ended early after he suffered with an electrical issue on his M-Sport Puma Rally1 car.
It had been a relatively uneventful weekend for Loubet, although the M-Sport driver stalled momentarily on the start of SS11 while and ended one of Sunday’s stages with a wild moment in which he was close to coming off the road.
But despite that, he went onto the powerstage eighth overall, 22.4 seconds behind team-mate Gus Greensmith.
However, he was unable to finish the rally or challenge for any additional powerstage points after he failed to make it onto the test.
Greensmith was given the green light to start his stage at normal, but when the four-minute gap came to an end, Loubet was nowhere to be seen.
He still hadn’t checked-in for the stage and was stuck at the side of the road, where he remained while everyone else completed the final stage.
M-Sport has confirmed his retirement was as a result of an electrical problem on his car.
“It’s disappointing to finish the event like this, but sometimes it goes that way,” Loubet said.
“For our first time here in Finland in a top-level Rally1 car, it didn’t go so badly overall.
“We are now looking to the rally in Greece, which I think will be better based on how the car works and feels for me.
“So, now we have a break and then we go again.”
Loubet’s retirement promoted WRC2 winner Teemu Sunniness to eighth overall, while Emil Lindholm and Loubet’s M-Sport team-mate Jari Huttunen rounded out the top 10.
