Adam Gould has had to retire from the Rally of Scotland after a failed water pump caused his Peugeot's engine to overheat after the first service.
The young British driver – who had been awarded the BFGoodrich Peugeot drive for this event – was running ninth having spun on SS4 today. A warning light came on at the refueling point and Gould discovered that the water pump problem had caused terminal overheating damage.
"I can't believe it," Gould told AUTOSPORT. "To have gone from the highest of highs to this is just unbelievable. We've had a terrible morning with a stupid spin on the second stage [of the day]. That cost us loads of time. But the one thing we thought we still had was mileage to settle into the car, and now that's gone."
Marc van Dalen, whose Kronos team runs the Peugeots, apologized to Gould and his co-driver Sebastian Marshall. "What can I do? I'm very sorry for Adam and Seb, but this is rallying, that's life, it can happen," said van Dalen. "He has done everything right and made no mistakes, and I need to apologize."
Gould said he could not blame the team for the problem. "It's a disaster but I absolutely can't blame the team," he said. "They checked the data, there was nothing on the laptop. This team has been on top of everything. It's just one of those things."