Hirvonen explains Stage 10 truck collision

Hirvonen had started the stage fifth in the overall classification, but the test went wrong for him and co-driver Michel Perin very early on, as the crew got lost twice, sustained two punctures and suffered a gearbox failure on the Mini.

After that, the Finn would collide with a competitor from the truck category, ensuring Hirvonen and Perin arrived to the San Juan bivouac well into the evening, their car lacking a bonnet.

“There's one truck we were following for a long time, and then that that truck passed a slower truck, which then ended up being in the dust of the faster truck,” Hirvonen explained to Motorsport.com.

“And he was going slow, I was going really slow – but, still in the dust, he went a little bit off. I was with the second gear, I saw the truck and I braked, but we hit the rear a little bit.

“[My] gearbox was broken, so I couldn't reverse and run away. In the dust, he didn't see us, he reversed on top of the bonnet and broke the radiator.

Hirvonen insists that, apart from the gearbox issue, the car is ready to continue the rally.

“When we were fixing the radiator, I took the bonnet off because it was completely broken. Now when you put the bonnet on, the car is completely fine – except the gearbox is broken.”