This week’s round of the ERC is set to be ex-Formula 1 star Kubica’s first gravel rally in the series after his recent loose-surface WRC2 debut in Portugal.
But he had been reluctant to start unless more recce time was allocated as the field struggled to make pacenotes in Wednesday’s weather.
The Pole was not alone in voicing his dismay as terrible weather conditions blighted the mid-Atlantic island on the designated reconnaissance day.
“There was a lot of fog, in some places it was impossible to write pacenotes,” Kubica told AUTOSPORT.
“We have 20km of stages without pacenotes. That’s too much. Without pacenotes I will not drive.”
When asked if all stages that were affected by the fog were impossible to run, Kubica replied: “The first one, the longest one, was on the edge, but should be no problem.
“The other stages… one stage, the first half, was impossible and the second, like 9km of it, you could see for a maximum 10 metres.”
Kubica showed AUTOSPORT a photo he had taken out of the windscreen of his recce car on SS16, where the fog was opaque from just ahead of the bonnet of his car.
“It’s maybe five metres here,” he said. “No, even less, four metres. I stopped for 40 minutes on one stage, hoping it would clear, but it got worse and worse. Difficult.
“I have no clue how the road looks or what is around.”
When asked if he was aware of the huge 300-metre drops around the edge of the spectacular volcanic lake of Lagoa Azul, he replied: “I don’t know! The stage with the volcano, I have no clue how it looks.”
AUTOSPORT has learned that the rally organisers will now grant crews more recce time on both Thursday and Friday mornings.
The event is scheduled to start with three stages on Thursday afternoon.
At present the weather remains poor, with thick fog still in place at the rally headquarters.
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/kubica-azores-pull-out-threat-averted
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