Greensmith admits to learning lessons on the Monte, despite his event being shortened

Despite an early bath at last week’s Monte Carlo Rally, Manchester driver Gus Greensmith says he learned plenty from driving a Ford Fiesta R2 in the French Alps.

Greensmith was ruled out by a mechanical issue before the second Saturday stage, but admitted the nine stages he completed were some of the toughest he’d ever seen.

“Sisteron was always going to be tough,” Greensmith said, “but Friday was tricky with all the rain and mud around and then the snow on Saturday was incredible. Working with the ice-note crew and looking at the tyres we’re going to take has taught me so much about the event.”

Greensmith felt his pace was too slow early in the event, but fastest R2 time on SS9 was a demonstration of his upturn in speed throughout the event.

“Everybody had told me this had to be a high-speed recce,” he said, “and that’s what I was doing. I spoke to dad on Friday night and he said he wanted to see me going a lot faster on Saturday morning, so we did exactly that. It’s really frustrating not to get as far as we would have wanted, but we take a great deal away from this event, I’ve learned loads. But now the focus is on the rest of the year. To be honest, I was so envious of the guys in the R5 cars, I can’t wait for Mexico to get back in a four-wheel-drive car.”