Pierre-Louis Loubet has crashed out of Rally of Portugal with a big impact that looked to have broken his steering.
Just a stone’s throw away from the end of the infamous 23.13-mile Amarante stage, Loubet clipped the left-side his car on a bank which spat him across the road and into another bank.
Both he and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul were OK, but that put a premature end to the M-Sport driver’s fight for third place.
Loubet was able to move his car further to the side of the road but was unable to get moving again.
Meanwhile Kalle Rovanperä continued to throw all his weight behind growing his Rally of Portugal lead, taking a huge 21.7 seconds away from Dani Sordo to extend his advantage.
The reigning champion put in a mighty performance on the day’s opening test and backed that up on the infamous 23.13-mile Amarante route – winning the stage and bridging his lead to 45.8s.
Sordo has been unable to match his Toyota rival so far on Saturday morning, and after struggling on SS10 he now has Esapekka Lappi for company – who is just 3.3s behind in third.
Lappi now has his full focus on taking second place away from his Hyundai team-mate, after displacing his other Hyundai stablemate Thierry Neuville on SS9.
“I am sure the referees will give us the time back. There was no point to take any risks in that kind of place when somebody has stopped,” he explained.
“It was an OK stage – for sure Kalle [Rovanperä] is coming quite fast but I am more interested in Dani [Sordo] at the moment.”
Loubet’s crash means Neuville has fourth place quite comfortably for now, with Ott Tänak a good chunk of time behind at 34.1s.
After comparing the Ford Puma Rally1 to a “wooden horse” on Friday, Tänak switched up his horse-related comments on Saturday’s second stage as he looked to muster up a hunt for fourth.
“We could improve the balance a bit from the previous stage, but I am still having quite a massive struggle with the suspension,” he said. “Still riding this wild horse.”
As most of the Rally1 drivers were forced to slow for Loubet’s stricken Ford, it is likely the times may be altered slightly to make up for the lost seconds.
