Luis-Perez Companc failed to finish the Rally d'Italia Sardgena over the weekend after he crashed out on day two of the event rolling heavily on the first pass of the Monte Lerno test.
The Munchi's Ford World Rally Team leader and his co-driver, Jose Maria Volta, were uninjured in the off, but they were unable to restart under the SupeRally for the final leg on the Sunday as the Focus RS WRC06 was too badly damaged.
“Saturday started well and the first stage was very good. I had the perfect road position and this meant I could follow the racing line easily and keep it all neat and I was really happy with my driving,” reflected Companc. “I was trying to do the same on the second stage but unfortunately I had a pace-note that wasn't exactly correct.
“There was a rock and I didn't have a warning in my notes to stay far enough out from it. This forced me over to the wrong side of the road and I hit a boulder with my right rear wheel; this pushed the car across the road and we went off on the other side, rolling into a ditch. It was quite a heavy impact and the car was damaged badly.”
Leg one hadn't gone very smoothly for the Argentine either and after a minor off on SS4, he lost more time in the final test of the loop when he had an electrical problem, something that cost him nine minutes and dropped him from 13th overall to 19th.
“In the afternoon of the first day we had a few problems,” he added. “I overshot a junction on stage 4, losing 30 seconds, as the braking was very slippery even on the second pass and I slid off on a fast corner; luckily though there was a lot of room and we just lost some time.
“Then we had a throttle problem though and the car stopped 800 metres from the end of stage 6. With the team's help on the telephone we got it started again and it turned out to be an electrical problem. We lost a few minutes but made it back to final service.”
All-in-all it was another bad result for the Argentine, who hasn't had much luck so far this year. He will be hoping for a change in fortune on the Acropolis Rally in two weeks time.
![Luis Perez Companc (ARG). Munchi's Ford Focus WRC 06 [Pic credit: Munchi's / worldrallypics.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/298303.jpg)
