CONFUSED ABOUT WRC SUPPORT CLASSES? YOU WILL BE .... WRC 2 AND WRC 3 REPORT
Eric Camilli scored the biggest win of his career when he clinched the WRC 3 category on the seasonopening Monte Carlo Rally.
Driving a Sainteloc Citroen C3 R5, the driver from Nice was never headed as he took a lights-to-flag victory in the class.
And so much for the FIA’S hopes of easing the R5-based confusion – WRC 3 winner
Camilli came home a place ahead of WRC 2 winner Mads Ostberg in the overall classification.
Camilli was predictably delighted at what turned out to be a comfortable win from Nicolas Ciamin’s similar car.
“I am so happy with this result,” Camilli said. “Not just for me, but also my co-driver Francois-xavier [Buresi]. This was his first ever Monte Carlo and only his 20th ever rally! We led from the start and I had to manage the gap to the other guys. The car was working well all of the time, but we had one small brake problem. I didn’t know how to manage that problem, but once I talked with the team it was fine.
“This [deal] is just the one rally. I [took] the call, [and] the team asked me do I want to do it – of course I wanted to! Now I hope to talk to them some more and find some way to do more in the season.”
Ostberg finished the event 39s behind Camilli. He was delighted with his WRC 2 win aboard his PH Sport-run C3 R5, but frustrated at not being top R5 runner. Ostberg’s hopes of taking that honour went south when he had to stop and change a puncture on the first stage on Friday morning.
“When I was changing the wheel I thought: ‘OK, then let’s push and see if we can catch this back.’ I pushed hard and came close to Eric. I guess Eric didn’t even think we were in a fight but, for me, I was fighting with him!
“It’s a good result for me and for the car. I spent a year working on this project with Citroen last year and now it’s C3s at the top [of the R5 rankings] – we’re no longer at the bottom of the results anymore.”
M-sport Ford star Adrien Fourmaux recovered from a second-stage puncture of his own to power his Fiesta to second place in WRC 2, with Hyundai new boy Nikolay Gryazin the meat in an M-sport sandwich as Britain’s Rhys Yates followed the Russian home in fourth place.
Yates admitted he’d learned lots on his second Monte start and his first in a Fiesta R5 MKII.
“We’ve shown some real progression in terms of the times,” he said. “Last year I was a bit nervous of this event, but this time around I’ve come here and got stuck in. We could have gone a bit harder in some of the tricky sections, but I wanted a finish, I was in a new car and I wanted more experience of what is a very, very specific event.”