Green smith’ s pain, tide man d’ s gain
Parked up at the side of the road just before Saturday afternoon’s Amarante stage, Gus Greensmith deserved an awful lot more. For two rallies, he’d kept his powder dry, done as he was told. In Portugal, he was off the leash, free to drive it like he stole it.
He did just that and built a half-minute lead – no mean feat on a typically packed European WRC2 round. Day two was, however, his undoing. A couple of punctures on the first loop cost him the lead, but his heart was properly broken when a steering arm gave up the ghost between stages 14 and 15.
Greensmith would fight one more day on the roads around Fafe, but this was the one that got away and he knew it.
“It is frustrating,” he said. “But we came here to show the pace, we did that and we led the rally and after the punctures I said I wanted to get back onto the podium. I did that as well. I did what I said I would on this rally, but the result hasn’t gone our way.” Next time. Chief beneficiary of Greensmith’s misfortune was Stephane Lefebvre, who moved to the front and then looked odds-on to give Citroen’s C3 R5 its first win. It was all going nicely, right up until the Frenchman punctured on Saturday’s final stage.
The upshot of those issues was a pretty straightforward final day for series leader Pontus Tidemand, who was able to bring his Skoda Fabia R5 home for another maximum score. The Swede looked to have been ruled out after he suffered his own deflation on the opening day, but typically he kept at it and brought the points home again.
Pole Lukasz Pieniazek (Skoda) was second with Lefebvre taking some sort of consolation in the shape of third place and a podium spot in the C3.
The Junior WRC event was a typically frantic affair with Denis Radstrom giving way early doors to his fellow Swede Emil Bergkvist. There was, however, never more than a metaphorical fag packet between the top two Fiestas until SS12.
As was the case in the main field, Amarante 2 had a massive effect on the Junior event, with Bergkvist rolling near the end of the stage. He wasn’t the only one: Kiwi Dave Holder and Briton Tom Williams also rolled their cars. Holder went on to get out of jail with a recovery drive that delivered third place, while Williams suffered a second inversion on Sunday.
Williams told MN: “This really has been a crazy rally. It’s been great, but crazy. Both of the rolls were quite slow speed and so, so frustrating – we would have been on for the podium without those. But at the same time, I’ve been able to get so much experience out here and that’s invaluable. To come and drive these stages has been incredible.”
There was further heartbreak for Irishman Callum Devine, who had come within touching distance of second place behind Radstrom. Running second well into the final day, Devine fell foul of one of Luilhas’ rougher spots. He lost a wheel and the Fiesta – along with his hopes and dreams – were parked at the side of the road.
Devine said: “It was a small mistake, I braked a little bit too late for a corner and that was it. This has been such a rough rally and like the other ones, the learning curve is just so steep!”