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Galli and Latvala retire from day two

Jari-Matti Latvala and Gigi Galli have both been forced to retire from day two of the Rally Argentina at the midday service

Works Ford driver Latvala went over the permitted time limit while trying to repair a starter motor problem prior to SS11, while Galli's Stobart car suffered electrical damage at the end of the morning's stages.

Galli was running fourth, fending off Citroen's Dani Sordo, before his car filled with smoke in SS13.

I'm not sure exactly what happened," Galli told the official series website. "But around the first watersplash on SS13 the car's transmission tunnel started to get extremely hot and burn the electronics panel. We had a small spin and damaged the exhaust as well.

"In the middle of the stage I had to open the window because I couldn't breathe - the whole car was full of smoke. There was no fire, but at the end of the stage the marshals fired an extinguisher inside."

Although the Italian eventually managed to get the car back to service, its electrics had been damaged and he had to retire from the leg.

Latvala had been eighth before his problems, having already lost nine minutes by rolling on Friday morning.

He struggled to get his car started for SS11 earlier today and joined the stage out of the position, consequently going over the time limit. Although he was still classified eighth during the morning, he was withdrawn from day two when he returned to service.

The Finn believed damage sustained in this morning's first stage caused the starter problem.

"We had a small impact on the sumpguard, and it seems that it broke the cable for the starter motor, so at the start of the next stage we couldn't get started," Latvala explained.

"We had a lot of work to do. Eventually we got it started, but we were quite late."

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