Van Merksteijn Motorsport disappointed by retirements on Rally Catalunya de Espana
Posted by
Scott Coursey 6 October, 2008
Images: ©willyweyens-rallyworld
Disappointing final day of WRC Rally Catalunya for Van Merksteijn Motorsport
Van Merksteijn Motorsport enjoyed a good drive by Peter van Merksteijn on the final day of the WRC Rally Catalunya around the Spanish resort of Salou until the 17th stage when Peter had to retire with engine problems. Up until 20km into the stage Peter was running in 15th position in the overall standings.
Peter van Merksteijn started the day with some trouble getting temperature into the hard Pirelli tyres in the early morning as it has been a cold night on the Costa Daurada. It was a wise decision to go for the harder compound as on the next two stages the time lost on the first stage was compensated and Peter drove well within the margin allowed compared to times of the top drivers. All morning Peter had troubles with the volume of the intercom in the car which made it at times very difficult to hear the instructions from the co-pilot and forced him to drive on sight preventing even better times.
After the last major service at PortAventura the intercom system has been replaced and this seemed to cure the problems a bit. On the first stage of the afternoon of 16.3km Peter had a superb drive finishing just 18 seconds behind rally winner Sebastian Loeb. The second last stage of the day was going very well until 20km into the stage when the crew had to stop the Ford Focus WRC due to engine problems and were forced to retire with only 8km of timed special stages left in the rally.
After the retirement of Peter jr. on Saturday and Peter forced out off the rally in sight of the finish it has been a disappointing event for the Dutch rally team of Van Merksteijn Motorsport.
Images: ©willyweyens-rallyworld
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