Adrien Fourmaux has explained how he left the start of a Rally Sweden stage with his helmet strap unfastened.
The Hyundai driver had been in the thick of the fight at the front on Saturday, lying fourth overall and just 12.6 seconds shy of Elfyn Evans’ lead.
But Fourmaux dropped 23.6s on the final stage of the loop, Kolksele, because he had to stop just after the startline to fasten his helmet.
“Well, if I sum up the morning, it was a really great morning in terms of pace. I’m really pleased with my performance, etc, but we had a small issue on the starting line,” Fourmaux told DirtFish.
“I realized only five or six seconds before the start that my helmet was not tightened. But at the same time, we had to leave the stage. But for safety reasons, I need to put my helmet on also.
“So I really struggled, you know, when you have the gloves to put the [strap] between the two hooks, it’s really difficult. So I started the stage, then I stopped after the starting zone to put the helmet on and then leave again. So we lost 21 seconds on the first split.
“It’s really a shame. But also, I don’t understand, because every time we have a marshal checking if we have belts, helmets, etc, and I have nothing. I didn’t have gloves [on] when he was in front of me. No belts, the helmet was not strapped, etc. So I don’t understand.”
Fourmaux confirmed this was the first time in his career this has ever happened.
“It’s quite unlucky, but we have also to analyze why it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen for the future, for sure,” he added.
The Frenchman plans to speak to rally officials about what happened and attempt to get some time back.
“We’re going to see if we can improve that, but also if we can get some time back, because it’s not performance-wise, it’s just safety reasons,” he said.
“When it’s safety, that’s why I stopped the car, put the helmet on, instead of, I don’t know, going off and there can be spectators or whatever.”
Competitors have been penalized in the past for completing stages without their helmets fastened. Sébastien Ogier, Martijn Wydaeghe and Carlos del Barrio were all billed €400 for it at the 2021 Monte Carlo Rally.
But Fourmaux’s case is slightly different as he did not complete the whole stage with his helmet unfastened, but instead stopped to correct it immediately and then got going again.
