Jordan recce delayed by boat issue

The logistics of the World Rally Championship's move from Portugal to the next round in Jordan had to be tweaked at the last minute due to the political unrest in Syria.

The trucks had originally been booked on a boat from Venice to the port of Tartous in Syria. Those plans were changed last week, when a boat was found to take the kit from Trieste to Haifa in Israel instead.

The boat has now been delayed at sea and will dock a day later than originally expected, on Monday rather than Sunday. The organisers immediately decided to move the recce, which should have started on Monday, back by a day. It is hoped this will not affect the event itself.

A WRC source said: "This is unfortunate. All we know is that the boat won't be there until Monday and the recce is supposed to start that day. The concern now is that the boat might not get processed in the port as quickly as we would like. We don't know this port well at all, we've been into Jordan through Aqaba previously. We'll have to see."

Shakedown for the event is now expected to run on Wednesday evening.

Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen said: "I don't mind, it means we get a day off on Monday! I don't think it's going to affect anything too much. The recce will still happen.

"It's better to wait for the recce cars, I don't think there are really enough [Group N recce] cars to hire privately for the teams to go without their own."

The recce for the Cyprus Rally was hit by a delayed boat in 2005. At that time, the teams were forced to hire Group N cars in Limassol for their crews to complete their two practice runs at the stages.