Between great performances, reliability problems and extreme weather conditions, you had a busy week in Chile.
In fact, we had three big days with quite a few differences between each stage. It’s clear that the week hasn’t been easy. There were three rallies in one with different profiles and changing conditions.
On Friday, we started off really well with a very good first loop being close to the lead. On the second pass, the first of the afternoon, the alternator belt came off. On the road, I manage to repair it temporarily and by replacing the carbon fan which is very sharp, I pierce a water hose. We had to improvise with colsons and tape, a bit like MacGyver. In the end, we took six minutes of penalties, it was super frustrating. If we hadn’t done anything, the car would have stopped on stage anyway. According to my engineer, the belt jumped roughly every six kilometers, when there were compressions or jumps. It stayed in place long enough to recharge the battery.
After that, I was obviously a little angry, but I had to stay calm. While I was working on the belt on each link, Alex was rotating the tires, the timing was tight. Despite this uncertainty about the car and the alerts in the special stages, we managed to get a second time two tenths off the scratch, then a scratch in the last. I optimized everything in the stages by being diligent, without overdoing it.
On Saturday, starting second on the road, I was really happy with our performance. We lost 30s on Rovanperä who dominated all day, and we did better than Tänak for example. Saturday’s mission was to grab places to go further on Sunday. In the end, it was better to start in front the next day, but we scored good points.
It was forecast to rain on Sunday and when it starts to rain there, it’s a lot like Britain. For us, the day was good because apart from Ogier, the gaps are quite close to usual. We wanted to secure our fifth place on Saturday evening, riding without really taking any risks. Our ambitions were lower than on other days. In the championship, in addition, we didn’t have much left to play for and it would have been stupid to go out on the last special stages of the year on gravel.
On a rally that we were discovering, unlike the others, we proved that our preparation worked very well. We were in the match and we had an almost flawless rally with Alex.
What did you think of the profile of the special stages on this rally that you were discovering?
“Friday was super intense with walls on each side. You should definitely not touch the edges. The roads are round and flowing with beautiful ropes and elevation, it was truly magnificent.
Saturday was more mountain style with many changes of pace. Very smooth downhill sections, and suddenly some switchbacks. Sunday’s day was a little short as usual, but different with mud in each stage. In these foggy conditions, and I said it live, I was a little mixed about maintaining the stages completely. There was no helicopter, ground assistance would have had difficulty arriving on special stages, and above all, we could barely see anything in certain places. There were quite a few skies and I only hoped to avoid swerving onto an embankment or a junction where spectators would be placed. It was definitely blind sometimes, you had to get perfect scores. I think we could lose 1 to 2 seconds/km at least compared to usual. In these conditions, it’s not a question of performance in my opinion, it’s more about who is going to be the stupidest (laughs).”
Now, back on asphalt for the end of the season. What will be the preparation for Central Europe?
“I’m going to have a day in Austria at the end of the week. We will also be able to ride at RallyLegend with the Puma the following week. This will be practical for getting back into asphalt mode. I loved this event in 2020, even though it was during COVID with fewer spectators. This will be a full-scale test session. Otherwise, I asked the team to participate in the Erbst Rally like last year, but unfortunately the team had other priorities.”
What will be your objective for your event?
“I had a lot of hopes in Chile, telling myself that it was the last gravel rally of the season and that it was possible to really get a good result. In Central Europe, it seems more complicated to me, more than in Japan anyway.
Starting fifth on the road on Friday, it looks really complicated for us. We saw this last year with a road quickly full of mud after the passage of a few cars, and even just one with Thierry which quickly rotted the road. We will try to look for our first podium on asphalt, but it will not be easy. I have a little experience of this kind of conditions, notably Le Touquet 2019 where the evolution of the roads was enormous. A little in the Vosges Grand Est too. Last year in Central Europe, I was in a different situation with fairly similar conditions for each Rally2.
This situation can be very frustrating, but you must try not to overdrive to try to compensate for the loss of time. You can also quickly become fatalistic and find yourself far away by assuming too much.”
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