Sebastien Loeb has retired from Safari Rally Kenya following an engine issue aboard his Ford Puma Rally1 on the final stage of the morning.
M-Sport’s nine-time world champion completed the 19-mile Kedong stage with smoke coming from beneath the hood. He and co-driver Isabelle Galmiche extinguished a small fire at the rear of the engine bay, but couldn’t restart the car.
They departed the stop line under the car’s hybrid electric power, but were forced to stop at the side of the road when the battery was empty.
Dreams of a first #WRC Safari Rally win for @SebastienLoeb are in huge jeopardy ❌
His car is struggling with an engine problem 😬 pic.twitter.com/91ci5OBswJ
— DirtFish (@DirtFishRally) June 24, 2022
Loeb told DirtFish: “I think it’s finished because we don’t have a lot of battery left, we are in EV mode.
“It was a fire, but after the finish line. I finished the stage no problem, and then at the stop control I drove a few meters and stopped for the helmets, the engine switched off automatically. I tried to restart but it didn’t restart. There was burning a little bit behind the engine, I don’t know what [happened].”
Loeb had gone into the stage running third, just 1.9 seconds off the lead.
Team principal Richard Millener confirmed that Loeb would proceed no further.
“Unfortunately for Seb, it looks like a small engine fire at the end of the stage may have caused some damage,” said Millener.
“We don’t really have much information but he’s hard to retire for the day. So that’s very disappointing.”
