Adrien Fourmaux has crashed out of Ypres Rally Belgium on the penultimate stage of the rally, retiring from fifth position on the event.
Fourmaux had pulled off a deeply encouraging event prior to SS19, running as high as fourth overall in the early phases before a sudden rain shower for the later runners on the road dumped him to eighth.
The M-Sport driver then began a fightback up the leaderboard to fourth again, aided by problems for team-mates Craig Breen, Gus Greensmith and Thierry Neuville.
But Fourmaux slipped behind rival Oliver Solberg to fifth due to checking into Saturday’s penultimate stage late, costing him 20s.
He tried to make up the time across Sunday morning but had looked to have given up at the service break, but an accident on the second pass of Watou ruined his weekend.
Very early on the stage, Fourmaux hooked a cut and got all out of shape. The Puma Rally1 then squirreled down the stage, ending up in a ditch and from there Fourmaux was a passenger.
The car eventually hit a telegraph pole, severely damaging the front and putting Fourmaux out of the rally in an instant.
Fourmaux had also commented earlier in the morning, before the first loop of Sunday stages, that he was not feeling well.
His retirement elevates Takamoto Katsuta – who was without his hybrid unit for third time this weekend on SS19 – to fifth, with the leading five Rally2 cars now filling out the bottom half of the top 10.
Ott Tänak leads the rally from Elfyn Evans and Esapekka Lappi.
