Eric Camilli will revert to former co-driver Benjamin Veillas for the rest of the FIA World Rally Championship season after splitting with Nicolas Klinger.

Veillas partnered the 28-year-old Frenchman in WRC 2 last season, but when Camilli joined M-Sport World Rally Team this year it was confirmed that the experienced Klinger would partner him in the British squad’s Ford Fiesta RS.

The pair had a tough start to the 2016 campaign, retiring after hitting a tree at Rallye Monte-Carlo and then rolling heavily at Rally Sweden, and Veillas will return to the co-driver’s seat from next week’s Rally Guanajuato Mexico (3 - 6 March).

However, Camilli denied the accidents were behind the split.

“Nicolas and I were working very, very well in the car but we were not in the same line for the future. I didn’t have the same complicity as with Benjamin, so we prefer together to stop the partnership now,” Camilli told wrc.com.

“We were not working in the same way and I think that’s very important to succeed. In the car it worked very well, there were no problems. We went off twice in two rallies but that was not the issue. It’s more for human character reasons,” he added.

Veillas, who tested with Camilli in Spain on Thursday, co-drove for Julien Maurin in WRC 2 at Rallye Monte-Carlo. Klinger previously partnered Maurin for three seasons before joining with Camilli at the start of this season.

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