Tänak and Hyundai helpless victims of the hybrid system

Ott Tänak had made a superb start to rally. Best performer in SS5, the Estonian had just closed to 1s1 on leader Elfyn Evans when he was forced to interrupt his stage. “Ott finished the special with a problem with the E-kit, explique Julien Moncet le Deputy Team Director de Hyundai. The red light went off.

Second day of @RallySweden is about to start, unfortunately it's under Rally2 regulations for us, but we will go and do our job.#RallySweden #WRC #rallying #HMSGofficial #goOtt #TanakFanArmy #OttTanak #MartinJarveoja pic.twitter.com/d5vtrlCSs2

— Ott Tänak (@OttTanak) February 26, 2022

This is a safety issue and in consultation with the FIA ​​we had to stop the car. The regulations were made mainly with the crew in mind so there weren't too many questions to ask even if we could have continued with just the combustion engine. »

This scenario having not yet occurred since the launch of the championship, Hyundai was the first team to suffer the consequences. “The car has been quarantined, continues the Frenchman. The FIA ​​and Compact Dynamics technicians checked that the car was safe, which authorized us to work on it.

We replaced the hybrid unit and the one we removed will be inspected to understand what happened. We do not yet know the reasons for this problem, but the first analyzes allow us to say that it is something new, which has not been observed in testing. »

If we have to wait for the results of this investigation, it seems that Hyundai is the first manufacturer to lose a car during a stage due to a mechanical problem that is not its fault.

“It’s very frustrating for the whole team and for Ott, explains Moncet. The big problem is that there is nothing in the regulations which provides for this type of case. This is something we may need to change in the future. We have already talked a lot about it with the FIA ​​and we will have to get to work to find a solution. »

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