The accident happened under braking as the WRC rookie app🍬roached a tightening right-hander, 9.8km into the first pass over ‘Saintꦅ-Jeannet’ – ‘Malijai’.

The car ended up down a bank and was eventually freed with assistance from a gro♔up of spectatoꦜrs “pushing, pulling, and dragging” it, according to Solberg. Although the damage was purely superficial, the time loss amounted to half-an-hour and dropped him over thirty places down the leaderboard.

A similar exhaust fume problem afflicted Solberg and h𓃲is co-driving team-mate Elliott Edmondson during Friday’s stages, and it appears to be confined to his I20 N Rally1 car only as neither Ott Tanak nor Thierry Neuville have experienced a similar issue.

“On Oliver’s car, we had a recurrence of fumes coming into the cockpit,” said Hyundai Motorsport’s Deputy Team Director, Julien🎉 Moncet.

“We monitored the situation very closely during the day and managed to get the crew to the end of t🍸he day safely. We will be investigating thඣis again to find a solution. We hope for a better day tomorrow.”

W🧜hen things were going right for Solberg he displayed the kind brilliance that convinced Hyundai to promote him to their WRC set up on a﷽ shared programme for 2022 with Spaniard Dani Sordo.

“We used the afternoon as another va🌃luable learning experience,” said Solberg, the son of 2003 WRC champion, Petter. “Setting the joint third-fastest time through a snowy SS13, equalling my best-ever stage reꦺsult, was a nice way to end to a really difficult day.”

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motorsporꦐt has confirmed that Tanak will take no further part in the se📖ason opener after retiring his car from the event today.

A slow puncture on SS9 was quickly followed by a heavy front impa𒉰ct on an ice-cov🥀ered corner in SS11, with the subsequent damage forcing them to retire on the road section.

“We were leaking coolant and the engine was overheating s🐼o we had to stop the car on the road section,” said Tanak, the 2019 WRC champ🎶ion.

“Unfortunately, we won’t be able to continue tomorrow but we are c👍ommitted to learning from this challenging weekend to build for the rest of the season.”