Fourmaux has been leading in Saudi Arabia throughout the rally, but something strange happened at the end of Friday. A one-minute time penalty was issued to the Frenchman because he had checked into the final technical zone one minute late.
Before the penalty, the Hyundai driver was leading the event, but the one-minute sanction dropped him to fourth. At the moment, the rally is led by M-Sport Ford’s Latvian surprise package Martins Sesks, 3.4 seconds ahead of Thierry Neuville. In third place is Takamoto Katsuta.
Fourmaux drove a strong day, which has for the time being been ruined by the time penalty. According to the Frenchman, the team will still look into the matter.
“I was really pleased with our performance today. I think we might have been able to push more, but we were playing with the balance of pushing or saving the car and the tyres and I think we managed that quite well,” Fourmaux said.
“We came back here in the lead, with a small gap, ready to fight tomorrow – we were enjoying being in the battle with all the young guns, but now we are fourth after a time penalty for an early check-in. We’re not sure what happened, but at the moment I can only focus on myself and let the team investigate further.”
On Saturday, only three more special stages will be driven at Rally Saudi Arabia. They total just over 60 kilometres.
