The Frenchman’s day was filled with misfortune. In the morning, he suffered a puncture and then went off the road twice on the following stage, though he managed to continue. However, by then he had already fallen well behind the frontrunners.
Despite the setbacks, Fourmaux was still running in the points as the field headed into the afternoon loop. But he wouldn’t make it to the end of the day.
The second-to-last stage proved decisive for Fourmaux, as he rolled his car and was forced to retire. He later gave a rather unusual explanation for what had happened.
“I confused two trees. There was one tightening corner, but the braking point was just after the first tree, and I missed it. Then there were two trees, so I braked at the second one.”
“I missed the braking by 30 or 40 metres. Maybe not that much, but it was enough to go wide and end up on the roof.”
According to Fourmaux, the car didn’t suffer any immediately visible damage that couldn’t be repaired for Sunday. However, he wasn’t ready to confirm his participation in the rally’s final day, when valuable points are still on offer.
“You never know until we have a proper inspection. I remember Japan 2023 — there was nothing visible on the car, but a small hit on the roll cage, and that was it.”
Rally Sardinia concludes on Sunday with four more special stages. Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier leads the rally heading into the final day, 11.1 seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tänak. Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä holds third place.
