The team was hopeful that Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh would be able to run untimed through today's final ten stages in order to gain invaluable testing miles on the promising new car, following an off-road excursion yesterday. Having been in 12th place on the penultimate stage of Day 1, the Proton crew made the necessary repairs but it was not possible for the Satria to join the 59 cars from 73 that started the event to tackle today's marathon 10-stage charge to the finish.
"It wasn't easy out there," Wilks said. "We had a lot of small issues with the car, which can only be expected, such as the temperature warning alarms going off which was very distracting. Because it's such a new car we've also had to run without the optimum gear ratios as they haven't been homologated yet, so the acceleration that's in the car hasn't been translated into the times."
BFGoodrich Drivers Team entrant Thierry Neuville is also unable to re-start, following an accident on SS5 that blocked the stage. Finally, local star Francois Duval has also been ruled out of a re-start under the Super Rally rules following an accident just 200 metres into SS1.
The Belgium Ypres Rally resumes at 12:51 local time.
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