Bittersweet in Chile

McErlean/Treacy tackled the repeat loop of three stages with virtually a clean slate, it went reasonably well until a puncture on the final stage cost them more time, they are tenth overnight.

MOTORS: The M-Sport Ford Puma Rally 1 of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy lost its front bumper after a high-speed spin just two kilometres into the first stage of Rally Chile BIo Bio, round eleven of the World Rally Championship. Pic: Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool.

The opening day of Rally Chile Bio Bio, the latest round of the World Rally Championship, was a bitter-sweet occasion for the Hyundai World Rally Team as French ace Adrien Fourmaux and Belgian Thierry Neuville fill the top two places, a mere second apart, in favour of the former while their team mate Ott Tanak, who led by 9.7s after five stages, stopped with engine issues 5.6km into the day's sixth and final stage. The Irish duo of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy hit trouble very early in the opening stage and ended with a final stage puncture, they are tenth.

Eighth and the top M-Sport driver on the shakedown was promising but just two kilometres into the opening 19.72km Pulperia stage, McErlean's M-Sport Ford Puma Raly1 swapped ends at high-speed and contact with a bank and a fence ripped the front bumper from the car, severely affecting the aerodynamics as he finished the stage down in twenty-second spot - 57.4s behind early pacesetter Kalle Rovanpera (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1). At the stage end, he remarked, "On a long flat left and we just lost the rear, spun down the road. Lucky to be here. We need to go check." On the remaining two stages of the loop it was one of protection for the Kilrea driver and his Killeagh co-driver Eoin Treacy as they could ill afford any further contact with anything with the radiator and fans very exposed, they were seventeenth after SS3.