WRC Safari Rally drama as Gus Greensmith crashes, assistance delayed
Havoc reigned at the Syosambu stage when M-Sport Ford team Gus Greensmith and his navigator Jonas Anderson crashed and rolled their Puma car.
Greensmith, through a post on social, revealed his frustrations citing how they spent 3 minutes under the rolled car without assistance.
"To clarify, we had been trapped inside the car for over 3 minutes whilst safety marshals filmed & did not assist either myself & Jonas in exiting the car," Greensmith lamented in his post.
The M-Sport driver rolled his Puma onto its side after getting caught in a rut on a slow right-hander during Stage 8 on Saturday morning.
As a result of the crash, Greensmith was forced to kick the windscreen out to allow himself and Andersson to crawl out of the vehicle.
Greensmith was keen to extricate the car quickly after seeing Oliver Solberg's Hyundai catch fire from a hot exhaust following a crash in Rally Croatia in April.
A video has since emerged on social media showing Greensmith irate at officials at the scene of the crash.
After the long day, the Briton was still perplexed why marshals elected not to assist, given the car displayed a hybrid system green light, meaning it was safe to touch.
"We were just driving trying to finish the rally," Greensmith said. "We came into a long right that tightens into a medium right and it had some ruts in it."
"It was the same as last year and I still had the caution in the notes, but it lifted from the rear and I couldn't turn out of the roll and we rolled. We were stuck in the car for three minutes because the marshals wouldn't help."
Greensmith managed to continue after righting the car but was forced to drive wearing goggles, given the car was without its windscreen.
While Greensmith made it to the end of Stage 8, damage to the cooling of his Puma forced him out of the rally, which started brightly before losing 13 minutes to a puncture on Stage 4.
It cost them another minute on Syosambu as their pace naturally reduced – Greensmith describing the situation as "horrible" at the end of the stage. But soon after the stop-line, Greensmith pulled up once more and retired from the rally for the day due to cooling management issues.
