How a WRC driver turned a jacket into a makeshift window on Rally Sweden

Munster lost a rear side window from his Ford Puma Rally1 during stage six, which prompted some quick thinking to protect the car’s hybrid unit from the snow and prevent his windscreen from fogging up.

M-Sport’s new recruit showcased his resourceful side by fashioning a team jacket into a makeshift window for the day’s remaining two stages.

“I have no idea how we lost the window,” Munster told Motorsport.com. “Someone told me after the stage, and you have to protect the inside of the car because of the hybrid unit.

“You don’t want anything like that to get too wet and also having water or fresh snow coming inside make it very difficult for the windscreen to stay normal and not to fog up. We tried to make a window out of my jacket and it worked 35% I reckon but it still worked.

“We got some cable ties and some tape and bit of everything. I tried to make some knots in the sleeves and tie them to the car. I think there was more effort than the results.

“It has been incredibly difficult and there has been no grip today. We had a great starting position and I just hope it freezes a lot for tomorrow morning.”

Munster’s window making skills was among the many challenges he faced on Friday that delivered incredibly difficult snowy conditions for crews.

The Luxembourger lost more than four minutes to a puncture on stage four when a tyre delaminated.

The cold weather rendered his wheel gun inactive which meant he and co-driver Louis Louka had to change the wheel by hand.

“We delaminated in a straight line eight or nine kilometres from the start,” he added. “I have no idea how it happened as the tyre was new after stage two, so it had done 18 kilometres in total.

“We had to change the tyre and the battery on the gun was dead because of the cold and I had to change it by hand. And then we had fog on the windscreen, so we did 19 kilometres with very poor visibility.”

Munster ended the day sitting in 20th position overall heading into Saturday’s stages.