On Wednesday evening local time, the stewards announced that Friday’s Wadi Almatwi stage, which is scheduled to be driven twice, has been shortened.
Specifically, the final 3.6 kilometres of the stage will no longer be driven at competitive speed. The end section has been converted into a liaison.
The decision was made because leading WRC drivers felt the road was simply too dangerous to attack at full pace.
“We all agreed that the section was too dangerous. There was no point to it. All the corners are blind. There are big drops and rocks everywhere. You can’t even stop there if you have an issue,” Sebastien Ogier told DirtFish.
Ogier’s team-mate Kalle Rovanperä shared the same view.
“The road is really narrow, there’s a lot of loose stones, and all the time there are small crests or something. You don’t see the stones,” Rovanperä said.
“If there is something on the road, you can’t see it, and then at the side of the road you have a 100-metre drop. If it happens like it did to us in Rally Finland with a loose stone, you don’t want to know where you will end up.”
Rovanperä was referring to last year’s Rally Finland, where he lost a seemingly certain victory on the penultimate stage. A loose rock appeared in a fast corner, sending Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen’s Toyota into the forest.
Rally Saudi Arabia begins on Wednesday evening with a short super special stage. The event features a total of 17 special stages, covering an overall competitive distance of 312 kilometres.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, Ogier and Rovanperä will battle for the title in the final round of the season.
