The BWRT driver Daniel Oliveira had to fight till the end to make his way through the second Day of the Rallye de France, 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship, after overcoming a mechanical setback in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC as he was approaching the end of the leg.
This Friday’s action turned out to be more demanding than the expected mainly because the drivers and the teams had to take a gamble on the weather to decide which of the two compounds of the Michelin tyres they would use.
Since there was a chance of raining during the morning, Daniel chose to kick off with four soft tyres and brought two hard ones as backups. However, the conditions weren’t the most suitable for Oliveira’s choice.
“We had a cautious run and we just tried to find the proper pace. The stages were dry and fast and the soft tyres may not have been the best option” indicated Oliveira in the city of Colmar, where the drivers headed for a 15-minute remote service after the first loop of stages. The Stohl Racing team which runs Oliveira’s Ford had to work with only four mechanics in the remote service to leave the car ready for the repeated stages.
Oliveira headed back to the road with the aim of building up his pace and climbing in the overall standings but one of the Ford’s drive shaft broke down on SS5 and that prevented him from fulfilling his objective.
He made a great effort to drive his car in such conditions and in spite of that inconvenience he didn’t lose too much time in the next two long stages and was able to close the day running in the streets of Mulhouse.
“I went a bit off in a left corner and the rear left wheel touched the gravel. I lost the car’s handling and I hit some thing which broke the drive shaft. We lost some time but we were able to finish the day and that was important to me” said Oliveira.
Tomorrow’s route. On Saturday there will be a much faster and longer leg which will take place all over the Alsace department. The main novelty of this day is a 23,92-km stage in the Bas-Rhin department, called the Pays de la Haute-Ruche, which it is very quick and runs through the Steige and Charbonnière mountain passes. Oliveira has already run the other three stages although they have changed in length in contrast with 2011 round.
Credit: BWRT – Lavadinho
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