Hyundai WRT

[mknight]

A bit of a gravedig but I haven't seen this before

I got that from watching it live and the day highlights . They showed a small spin in SS6 (maybe spin is the wrong word, more like a half spin and slide wide) and a problem with second gear after that, then a spin again in SS7 and got stuck in reverse up against the bales.

I just watched the WRC+ in-car as well now to check - the one in SS6 is around 4:30, its not much of an impact (not one you would normally expect to break things) but it is enough to stall the car when it hits the berm so its possible the gearbox was weakened then. You don't hear the gear problem until later in the stage.

I can't tell from the in-car if the SS7 spin was stuck in gear or just that he was distracted by the problem and having trouble driving the car without second gear. It obviously wasn't completely broken/stuck because he could select reverse and back up to the bales.

I didn't say it was definitely the spins that damaged the gearbox, just meant that it might have been a factor. I agree that only the team will know what went wrong with it.

I watched SS6 some 2 months ago and it never would have occurred me to call that thing on SS6 a spin. The car is always pointing the right direction. He is a bit longer on the breaking and then the car stalls (without any audible throttle input) in ruts on the outside of the corner in like 5 kph.

In SS7 you hear for some 2 mins before the corner in 3-4-5th gear massive rattling from the gearbox (much louder than engine noise), which is not there at the start of the stage. At that point pieces of 2nd gear are likely getting everywhere in the gearbox. That he can select reverse after stopping in the corner only means the pieces were not blocking reverse at that moment.

To recap your original comment:

In Sardegna the car broke after he had spun it twice and backed it into the bales, so that breakage might have been his fault. Can't say for sure though, maybe it would have happened anyway.

The first highlighted part is not correct, first one wasn't a spin. In the "final" spin he is on throttle and the car doesn't drive ( and spins out due to momentum), so gearbox is completely broken.
The second highlighted part is quite a statement to suggest based on the only visible incident with 5kph stall with little throttle. A bit like saying Latvala broke his car in Germany by pissing next to it.