This weekend’s stages at Rally Finland saw some sick slides and gnarly jumps, but there were big some tumbles, too. WRC2 Driver Oliver Solberg and his co-driver Craig Drew rolled their Hyundai i20 Saturday morning just a couple of miles into the 11-mile long Kakaristo-Hassi stage.
Both competitors were OK, but their Hyundai i20 coupe was too damaged to continue running. Tor André Børresen captured clearer footage of the tumble and roll, however, in all of its awful glory. The Hyundai took a big hit!
After the accident, Solberg shared a quick update on Twitter to let fans know they had stopped early into Stage 7. He then followed up, sharing more details and that he was disappointed with the outcome. Again, both occupants were unharmed but the damage to the car was enough that they would be unable to compete the following morning, according to the driver:
The crash at Stage 7 marked the second time the young driver suffered a spill. Earlier that week, on Thursday, Solberg and Drew crashed during a recce run. No one was hurt in that accident either, as DirtFish reported, quoting the WRC2 pilot:
Nobody was injured in the incident, which it is understood occurred on the Hyundai Motorsport crew’s first run through one of the weekend’s stages in their recce car – a Subaru.
Solberg posted on Twitter: “As I mentioned earlier, it’s been an eventful day for us – but thankfully nobody was hurt in the accident on today’s recce.
“We switched to a spare recce car, and carried on making the notes and now look forward to the start of the rally tomorrow!”
The recce run, which is more or less a survey of the stage, was saved by a spare car, and the team carried on getting ready for the official runs. It’s not hard to imagine being shaken up by that first crash, though. Despite that, the drivers managed to overcome their tumble to finish Friday in fourth place.
Saturday morning was not quite the same for Hyundai’s young drivers, but it wasn’t bad for the team overall. Ott Tänak and Craig Breen scored a double podium for Hyundai in WRC proper, coming in second and third place respectively.
