7.9.2012 Rally Mont-Blanc ended due to off road caused by technical problem
Pajunen´s and Lindström's journey in the French Alps ended prematurely in SS2 because of loosed brakes and driving off the road. First stage went well, Mikko was fastest in Renault Clios and second in class R3, only 2.5 seconds behind Mathieu Arzeno who was driving the Citroen DS3.
In the second stage happened something mysterious. - First the brake pedal went to the floor. We were driving in sixth gear down from the mountain, fortunately there were only gentle curves. Then we started to drive slowly and the brakes started to work again. In the beginning of straight road I tried the brakes, but when I pushed pedal there was nothing. It was an incredible to try to stop the car when there was steep downhill and curves coming in the front, said Pajunen after thriller in the stage.
- Handbrake was enough to get car backwards. I got car's rear end to the bushes just before the stone fence. From there, it flew back to the road, and started to rotate, told Pajunen.
Clio survived with surprisingly small damages. Datalocker revealed that the front end lost all the pressures, apparently front brake cylinder broke down.
Mikko tells that it´s quite odd feeling when you loose brakes in 6th gear and more than 150 km/h speed, and especially when you are driving steep downhill.
French Championship does not know Rally2 (former Super Rally) rule, so unfortunately, Mikko and Kaj are unable to continue tomorrow in France. So all eyes can be turned to the Ukraine where IRC Series Yalta Rally is held next weekend. Pajunen and Lindström are driving a class 2 Super 2000 Ford Fiesta.
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