Munster, who represents Luxembourg, and Greek gentleman driver Serderidis are familiar names from the World Rally Championship. Munster competed for the M-Sport Ford WRC team over the past two seasons, while Serderidis has made occasional appearances in WRC events.
The duo lined up together for the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, with Serderidis driving and Munster navigating. They successfully completed the first two stages, but their rally came to an end on Tuesday during Stage 3.
The Ford Raptor driven by Serderidis suffered heavy damage in the desert.
“We had an accident on Stage 3. A steering arm broke and that caused us to roll several times. Thankfully, both Jourdan and I are okay,” Munster said in his Instagram story.
The pair escaped the crash without serious injuries, but the damage to the Ford was extensive enough to prevent them from continuing in the rally.
Serderidis and Munster were forced to wait a long time before being able to leave the desert. Munster was only able to update on their situation late on Tuesday evening.
“Thank you all for the messages. We couldn’t reply earlier as there was no signal in the desert. After 13 hours, we finally made it back to the tarmac and are now on our way to the bivouac. We’ll share more details tomorrow,” Munster wrote.
From Munster’s perspective, the retirement does have one positive aspect. He can now prepare more thoroughly for Rally Monte Carlo, where he will compete in a Ford Puma Rally1 car owned by Serderidis. Munster’s original plan had been to travel directly from the Dakar Rally to the Rally Monte Carlo recce.
The event is likely to be Munster’s final WRC appearance in Rally1 machinery. He will not continue as an official M-Sport Ford driver this year, as the British team signed full-season contracts with Josh McErlean and Jon Armstrong.
Rally Monte Carlo will be contested on 22–25 January.
