Adrien Fourmaux, back in Rally1 in a stream: “We went aquaplaning”

Le Rally of Japan 2023 was to take the form of a return to the forefront for Adrien fourmaux and Alexandre Coria. The French tandem, crowned with a title in the British Rally Championship and various convincing performances in WRC2 with M-Sport Ford, was able to replace Pierre-Louis Loubet in the land of the rising sun.

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Unfortunately, the adventure for the general classification was interrupted in the second special, contested in terrible weather. However, the Ford Puma Rally1 was not driving at a mindless pace as the intermediate times indicate. It only took one small mistake to drive the car into the ditch, against the Hyundai by Dani Sordo.

“We were coming out of a straight hairpin, therefore a slow bend, commented the Frenchman, who emerged unscathed just like his co-pilot. There was a slight left then, and just after this left, a flow of water. We started aquaplaning while braking. It was like ice cream. I couldn't have expected it, I had no information about it. »

To his credit, the condition of the road is changing rapidly under the Japanese trees. “ 20 minutes ago there was water all along the road, and now there is almost nothing. So the road changes a lot depending on the rain. Dani (Sordo) tried to signal me to slow down but I didn't see him in the hairpin.

I had fog on the windshield and we just wanted to finish the stage (a problem also encountered by his teammate Ott Tänak. Editor’s note). When I hit the brakes, the car got away from me right away. Honestly, when you have that much water on the road, it's hard to do anything.

Tricky morning in the books 📚 pic.twitter.com/cprOrNHBLh

— M-Sport (@MSportLtd) November 17, 2023

The only positive point in this misadventure: the slight damage suffered on the Ford Puma hybrid will most likely be repaired by the mechanics in order to continue the event, in exchange for a heavy time penalty. “For me, the car is okay, there was no impact, so we should be able to leave. »