Driver Guerlain Chicherit and co-driver Michel Perin had been lying ninth in the general classification and had been checking the car with chief mechanic Frank Tröbs after the scheduled rest day rebuild. On the return to the bivouac from the brief test – where everything was shown to be working normally - Chicherit clipped a ridge of ground and flipped the car into a series of three rolls, which badly damaged the body panels on the Mini.
Team director Sven Quandt took the immediate decision not to rebuild the car overnight and Chicherit and the new Mini All4 Racing were withdrawn from the event.
“If this had happened during the race then it would have been more acceptable,” said a bitterly disappointed team director Sven Quandt. “But this accident happened on a roll-out test after the car had just been completely rebuilt. Everything was fine. Guerlain had just confirmed this to the mechanic who was in the car. Guerlain decided he wanted to do another 25km, which is normally not necessary and then he came over a crest and we know what happened next.
“There was a clear understanding between Guerlain and us that the car has to go to Buenos Aires, no matter what the position. Even if it was slow, I did not care. He knew that and we had a meeting again in Arica about this.
“The car is very strong. There is nothing integral on the body that is damaged, but this is a disappointing setback for what is a very exciting project. We knew the car was fast and reliable.”
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