HABAJ OUT OF ERC FIGHT AFTER RETIRING IN SERVICE

20.08.2019

Łukasz Habaj’s hopes of closing the gap to FIA European Rally Championship title rival Alexey Lukyanuk are over on Barum Czech Rally Zlín after the Pole was forced to retire in Sunday morning service.

Habaj was due to run first on the road in P10 overall but a damaged rollcage from a side-on crash into a tree yesterday left his Sports Racing Technologies team with option but to retire his ŠKODA Fabia R5 for safety reasons.

“We came to the morning service and discovered that the rollcage is bent, so we cannot continue. Yesterday in all this heat when they were fixing it, nobody spotted it, but now we can’t continue,” explained Habaj.

“We were hoping for some day points for today and also wanted to keep fighting for points, so it’s a big disappointment. But what can I do? I made a mistake yesterday and that’s the consequence.”

With Lukyanuk’s only hope of scoring this weekend resting on how many leg two points he can score, Chris Ingram could move into the overall championship lead.