Hyundai driver Dani Sordo has suffered a fractured vertebrae, casting doubt on his participation in Rally Finland.
Sordo’s injury was not revealed until late last week after a suspension failure on his Hyundai i20 caused him to crash heavily during testing.
Hyundai immediately cancelled the remainder of the test program which it is hoped can be rescheduled prior to Rally Finland from July 28-31.
“A broken suspension arm turned the car completely to the right and we had a strong impact at the front,” Sordo said.
“At the moment it’s all good but tonight I’ll sleep in the hospital. Tomorrow we will have more news. Thanks for the support.”
Co-driver Marc Marti escaped injury in the shunt.
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“In the end I only have a fractured vertebrae and nothing much more important. I am pretty sore the lumbar part, tomorrow I’m going home for total rest to try to be on top in Finland,” Sordo said.
Sordo is entered for Finland under Hyundai’s satellite N squad which runs beside the main factory i20s for Kiwi Hayden Paddon and Belgian driver Thierry Neuville.
If Sordo and Marti are ruled out Kevin Abbring and co-driver Seb Marshall are expected to fill the breach.
Paddon remains third in WRC standings on 72 points behind Volkswagen pair Sebastien Ogier (143) and Poland Rally winner Andreas Mikkelsen.
After triple World Champion Ogier won the opening two rounds the WRC has seen a different winner at the previous five events with Jari-Matti Latvala (VW), Paddon (Hyundai), Kris Meeke (Citroen) and Neuville (Hyundai) each recording victories.
CLICK HERE for current WRC standings/results.
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