Highway to ERC Cyprus hell for AthanassoulasLambros Athanassoulas is on a highway to hell on the CNP ASFALISTIKI Cyprus Rally after his Ford Fiesta R5 suffered a potentially event-ending mechanical failure on the motorway back to the capital Nicosia for the day-closing street stage.
After nine stages, Athanassoulas is currently classified in sixth position but he confirmed to ERC Radio’s Julian Porter that his challenge on the opening leg of the FIA European Rally Championship season closer is over.
“As we were driving back to the regroup before the superspecial, we started losing acceleration meaning that we didn’t have 100 per cent of the gas pedal,” Athanassoulas said. “Then it went 70, 60, 50, 30, 20 and here you can see we have a steep incline and we couldn’t accelerate going up. We stopped and from then the car is not starting. We did all the resets and spoke on the phone [to the team] to do what we have to do but there was no fuel on the fuel rail. The pump is working, it’s sending fuel but the fuel rail has no pressure.”
Asked whether he would attempt to restart on leg two to chase the lucrative prize money on offer for the combined results of Love Cyprus Golden Stage 1 and 2, Athanassoulas said: “It’s nice to be on the [finishing] ramp but driving fast on stages like this without motivation, it’s easy to make a mistake and cruising to the finish is not what drivers like to do.”
Photo: Julian Porter/ERC Radio