Thierry Neuville has retired from the lead of Safari Rally Kenya, the damage to his rear-right damper too great to repair.
Neuville began Sunday with a 57.4-second lead over Takamoto Katsuta and looked to be the favorite to seal the first World Rally Championship win in Africa since Colin McRae in 2002, but it all unraveled on Sunday’s first stage, Loldia.
Exiting a square-left corner, Neuville immediately began to slow as the rear-right damper on his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC broke.
He nursed the ailing car to the end of the stage, holding an 11.7s lead over Katsuta, but after assessing the damage post-stage he quickly realized he had no chance of continuing.
DirtFish was quickly on the scene to to inspect the damage.
“It must have been broken before, it’s not possible. You can see many cracks,” Neuville said, checking the broken corner of the car while on the phone to his engineers.
He then screamed “****” before saying “OK, send somebody quickly”.
Neuville’s retirement promotes Toyota duo Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier into first and second, and marks the third rally in a row where Hyundai has surrendered the lead with a mechanical problem linked to the suspension.
In both Portugal and Italy, Ott Tänak retired with suspension-related issues while leading.
