VIDEO: Huge flames! Dani Sordo does not continue in the Japanese rally after his car literally burned

The last round of the 2022 season will not be remembered fondly by Spanish racer Dani Sordo. The Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver’s car literally burnt down on Friday morning’s stage, and he is out of the Japanese rally. You can take a look at his burning car in this article.

The WRC has its last event of the season, namely the Rally Japan, from Thursday to Sunday. However, the second leg will not be remembered fondly by the Spaniard Sordo, whose car literally burned up.

The thirty-nine-year-old had to stop his car just as it started to catch fire during Friday morning’s stage (and second overall). Sordo was still trying to put out the fire, but once the flames reached the tank he was practically done for.

In any case, Sordo and his co-driver Candido Carrera managed to escape the car. The fire was not extinguished until one hour and ten minutes, the organizers of course suspended this rally through red flags.

The cause of the fire remains unclear, although Sordo had reported before the incident that he could smell a strong struggle of petrol in his cockpit. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether the cause will even be found, as only the remains of the Hyundai i20 N were examined due to the severity of the fire.

Statement from the team boss

“We have no data and there is nothing left of the car. We can have a hypothesis, of course, but I’m not sure which is the right one. It’s not the same problem that Solberg had in Croatia. He spun out, pushed the exhaust into the car and damaged it,” said Julien Moncet, quoted by Motorsport.

“This is clearly a different problem, probably fuel-related or something else, it’s not clear. I could be wrong and I doubt we will ever find out the cause. The cars are made using a lot of carbon and apart from the roll cage and frame the rest is all composite. Combined with a full tank and a large battery, the fire is very hard to put out,” explained the team leader.

Moncet also added that while it was a big problem as they lost the whole car, they had no plans to use any elements from this current model for next season. Hyundai will be building a completely new car, including the chassis.

In fact, that is the one that they are keeping in some cases, but from the beginning Hyundai had no plans to use the current car in any way as far as development for next season. But there is still a large amount of data and finance that Hyundai has lost with this incident.

The second stage was eventually won by recent champion Kalle Rovanperä. However, there were six stages on the schedule, with Elfyn Evans leading the Japanese rally after Friday’s action ahead of Thierry Neuville and Finn Rovanperä.

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