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when he failed to last the distance in the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally in South Africa on Saturday.
The two-day Gauteng Rally was the fourth round the eight-round 2011 South African Rally Championship series in which Rautenbach is leading in the title chase.
And the 26-year-old talented Zimbabwean driver was looking at consolidating his lead in the SARC in the Gauteng Rally, which started on Friday and finished on Saturday afternoon.
But that was not to be as Rautenbach was “blown out” of the race on Day Two on Saturday.
According to reports from Johannesburg, Rautenbach, who was making a brave fight-back after a disastrous day one, exited the event on stage 11 with a blown motor in his Green Fuel Ford Fiesta.
After completing day one in a disappointing 10th place overall, the Zimbabwean/French combination of Rautenbach and Nicolas Klinger went out on Saturday’s stage 11 with terminal engine problems.
This paved the way for South African Mark Cronje, in a Team Sasol Ford Fiesta, to steal victory in the 2011 Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally by a comfortable margin of 58.9 seconds.
The rally ended at the Rallystar Motorsport Academy on Saturday afternoon.
It is the biggest winning margin in a long time.
Cronje was on control of the rally right from the start and at the restart of the event, Cronje, the overnight leader blasted through the opening stage six to set up a virtually unassailable lead.
He controlled the event from the front since he was the first car on the road sweeping the stages.
He could seemingly win the stages at will, but once he has increased his lead to nearly 50 a seconds he stopped pushing so hard.
Second was the Castrol Team Toyota Auris of Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock who once again overcame huge odds to finish in second place.
Gemmell started in sixth place overall on Saturday morning and in true grit rally fashion fought his way up the leaderboard to finish second overall.
Third was the hard charging Charl Wilken in a Basil Read/Bizhub Ford Fiesta.
He took over where Cronje left off on Saturday afternoon and reeled in the one stage win after the other to finish third after the third placed Leeroy Poulter in the other Castrol Team Toyota Auris rolled on the final Super Special Stage.
He was followed in fourth position by Enzo Kuun in a BP VW Rallying Polo Vivo, with his teammate, Hergen Fekken in a similar car in fifth overall after having fought back from outside the top 10.
Hein Lategan drove a steady event to bring his Pirtek Peugeot 207 home in sixth position, followed by the luckless Poulter in seventh place overall.
Visser du Plessis made it a second top ten finish for the Pirtek sponsored Peugeots by finishing eight.
The next round of the championship is the Volkswagen Rally on July 15 and 16.