HRD’s Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino have successfully completed the 2014 round of WRC Spain. The duo had a positive outing throughout the entire rally where they started their final day of stages on Sunday sitting 12th overall and looking to crack into the top 10—which they managed to do prior to the last stage of the event. Unfortunately, on the final stage, Block suffered a puncture on the front driver’s side tire (from a small rock in the racing line), which eventually failed completely and exploded, leaving Block to drive on three tires and a bare rim for the last 7 km of the stage. Due to the puncture the pair surrendered their top 10 finish and completed the event in 12th overall.
“That puncture on the last stage was really disappointing,” said Block. “We drove hard to put ourselves in the position to be in the top 10 and managed to pull it off, despite this being only my second stage rally of the year and 18 months since I’d last done WRC, and 3 years since my last WRC tarmac rally! Unfortunately, that’s rally and typically a puncture comes at the worst time. It is what it is though, my goal was to come on out and have a great time and I’ve definitely managed to do that.”
“The roads and fans are amazing here in Spain, plus the event organizers did a great job with this race—they even included a few mandatory donuts in the stages! Overall though it was great to be back in a World Rally Championship race and it was good to see all of my driver friends from this series. The entire weekend was really enjoyable. I love racing the WRC Ford Fiesta RS as well, so hopefully I’ll be able to add a few more of these events into my schedule next year.”
