Jos suffers technical issue in BRC East Belgian Rally

Published on 27 September 2026 by Misha van der Kroon

Jos Verstappen and his co-driver Renaud Jamoul have been forced to retire from the East Belgian Rally, part of the Belgian Rally Championship. The Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, prepared by Sarrazin Motorsport, suffered from a technical issue throughout Saturday. An oil leak resulted in a loss of power, bringing the rally of the team of Verstappen Racing to a premature end.

“It’s a shame, because this is one of my favourite rallies of the year,” Jos says. “The weather was really nice and there was some strong competition, so I was looking forward to it. A lot of the stages are fast, they were in great condition and it’s a very complete rally.”

The East Belgian Rally consists of four different special stages, each of which is contested three times: Büllingen (14.04 km), Bütgenbach (6.30 km), St. Vith (12.04 km) and Burg-Reuland (13.67 km).

On the opening stage, Jos is slowed down by dust from the competitor ahead and loses ten seconds. He finishes ninth, and explains: “After the first corner, I could barely see anything because of all the dust. We lost some time there, but it is what it is.” On the second stage, Jos again finishes ninth, but this time he is just 3.3 seconds off the pace.

Jos crosses the finish line sixth-fastest on stage three (+6.9s) and seventh on the fourth stage, 12 seconds behind the fastest time. Verstappen explains: “We’re still searching for the right setup. The times show that it’s not easy. We’re trying to build it up.”

Stage five produces a sixth-place finish (+2.6s), followed by another P6 on stage six (+2.3s). At the halfway point of the day, Jos is sixth overall, 34 seconds behind Grégoire Munster and his co-driver Damien Withers. “We were lacking top speed, so we made some adjustments for that,” Jos explains. “But we still need to find some more front-end grip.”

On the seventh stage they finish fourth (+3.8s), while the eighth and final stage of the second round is another P5 (+6.8s). Verstappen and Jamoul therefore sit in fifth place overall with one more round of four stages remaining.

However, Jos does not get to contest that final round. The engine of his Skoda Fabia RS is found to be suffering from an oil leak, resulting in a loss of power. This also explains why the rally had been proving difficult throughout the day. Jos and Renaud therefore see their BRC East Belgian Rally come to a premature end.