The Wallonie Rally, held last weekend, ended with a scare for Jos Verstappen and his co-driver Jasper Vermeulen. During the thirteenth stage of the competition, the vehicle suffered a severe accident, crashing into a pole and overturning. Fortunately, both drivers emerged unscathed from the incident.
Verstappen, who replaced his usual co-driver Renaud Jamoul with Vermeulen due to an injury, was competing in a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 near Namur. The accident occurred on a right-hand bend, where the combination of dust and gravel made it difficult to control the car, causing it to crash into a pole and overturn.
After the accident, Verstappen commented that the safety of modern rally vehicles was a key factor in saving them from more serious injury. “It was a significant impact, but cars nowadays are incredibly safe, as our exit without damage shows,” he explained. “The most important thing is that we came out of this situation safe and sound.”
Before the incident, the team had been performing well, sitting in third place in the provisional standings after Saturday’s stages. Despite a 40-second penalty in the first stage, Verstappen was still chasing the leaders, Adrian Fernemont and Maxime Potty.
After his retirement, Verstappen is positioned fourth in the championship with 40 points, just behind Potty, who leads with 65 points, and Bastien Rouard, who is in second place.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_8697f1d51aaa539e5dc76c00648af1c5a7a9e205