M-Sport driver Josh McErlean said he had no warning that his engine was losing oil and would lead to his retirement on the second day of Rally del Paraguay.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver had been sitting seventh overall after nine stages, but when parking up to change tires ahead of SS10, he noticed that his Ford Puma Rally1 was in trouble.
McErlean told DirtFish: “We took off the sump guard to investigate and there was a big puddle of oil, which isn’t ideal. We phoned the team, we looked around and obviously we’ve seen what was wrong so we took the sensible decision to retire.”
Asked what had happened to cause that, the 26-year-old added: “I think it’s basically a step on the road that’s pushed the sump guard up slightly and it seems like it’s sheared some bolts. So, yeah, it’s not an ideal thing when it’s the engine involved.”
While the car is yet to make it back to service for the team to investigate, McErlean is confident he will be able to restart on Sunday.
“I think it’s going to be OK from that side because there were no alarms or indication that we were losing oil before, so it was probably a lucky thing that we actually stopped here and noticed it before getting to this next stage because there’s big dust in there and the engine wouldn’t have lasted long without any oil.
“So it’s maybe a godsend that we did stop and check. Still not ideal we’re out for the day, but we have to suck it up and try and get it going again for tomorrow.”
Team-mate Grégoire Munster retired on the road section between SS10 and SS11 with exactly the same problem.
