‘Rovanpera crashed’
MN’S wooden spoon,
Even Gus Greensmith sensed his last sentence was a little bit strange. Certainly it was taking a moment or two to register with MN. He was, he reckoned, pleased to get aboard M-sport’s Ford Fiesta R5 MKII after the last two world championship outings in a Fiesta WRC.
Don’t worry. He continued and made complete sense.
“I did a lot of the testing on rough rallies in the new [R5] car,” he said, “but this was the first chance I got to compete in it.”
Ah, OK. Gotcha. And?
“It’s good,” he grinned. “It’s very, very good.”
The last couple of rallies had brought more than the odd furrowed brow in Cumbria as Eric Camilli struggled to keep pace with the boys in Finland and Germany.
Normal service was resumed with Manchester’s finest firmly in place.
Beyond Greensmith’s MKII debut, the story of WRC 2 Pro was all about punctures and who could boast the most deflations in any given stage.
A puncture was just the start of Kalle Rovanpera’s problems on the event’s opening gravel stage. He knew he had to stop the factory Skoda and change…
“I was looking for the next straight place where I could pull over, when I lost some concentration and we rolled,” he said. “We got the car back on the wheels, then we had to change the tyre.”
That cost him four minutes, but worse was to follow. It’s hard to imagine what worse looks like, but a couple more punctures in the following stage would just about do it.
His rally ended with the
Fabia parked up, complete with air in just three of the six Michelins he left service with hours earlier.
Rovanpera returned under Rally 2, but his hopes of a fifth win in six starts had gone.
His Skoda team-mate Jan Kopecky ensured a Fabia R5 was in the thick of the fight for the win, but he relinquished that advantage when he stopped to change a second puncture on Saturday.
Does that mean Greensmith was gifted the win? Not a bit of it. He suffered a multitude of flats himself, which made his decision to back himself on a Saturday afternoon charge with only one spare. He rocketed into the lead and stayed there until Sunday’s finish. The only minor (!) hiccup was rolling after the finish on the penultimate stage.
“This is a great result for the team,” he said. “But why can’t I do it the easy way? That was the most dramatic finish of my career – at least we’ve shown the car’s Gus-strong now!
“The car has been fantastic. We took a bit of a gamble on Saturday afternoon, but it worked and we were able to get back into the lead. What a way to finish!”
And getting the MKII into the top 10 was the icing on the cake for M-sport and Greensmith.
Switching from a Volkswagen Polo back to his Skoda Fabia R5 just before the event, triple European Rally champion Kajto Kajetanowicz bossed WRC 2 from start to finish, for the Polish driver to score an emotional maiden category win.
His hopes of clinching a coveted top-10 result were spoiled by a driveshaft failure on the final morning.