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ERC - Rally Hungary post-event driver quotes

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25.10.21

FIA European Rally Championship 2021, Round 7 - Rally Hungary - Post-event quotes from the category winners 

MADS ØSTBERG, TRT CITROËN RALLY TEAM HUNGARY, CITROËN C3 RALLY2 (FIA ERC1 winner)
“It was quite a good weekend for us, probably one of the best recoveries I’ve ever had because we dropped down to 11th after our small off-road. To be honest we were lucky to get away with that by just losing a minute. After that we just focused on trying to fight back. We had many good stages over the weekend and, unfortunately, a puncture [on SS8] that cost us a bit more time. But there was not more we could have done.”

JAVIER PARDO, SUZUKI MOTOR IBÉRICA, SUZUKI SWIFT R4LLY S (FIA ERC2 winner)
“It’s incredible to win five rallies out of five but this is the work of all the team. We had the perfect car, the perfect service, the perfect tyres, the perfect all. Of course, me and Adrián made a good job with a constant rhythm, no mistakes, only one puncture on the gravel. It’s perfect and we never gave up after the puncture. It was a long rally with a lot of kilometres so I needed to stay focused in all moments. Now we have the final round in Spain and I hope we can finish with another victory and win the championship.”

SAMI PAJARI, PORVOON AUTOPALVELU, FORD FIESTA RALLY4 (FIA ERC3/ERC3 Junior winner)
“We had a small lead after the first day but the first stage this morning was somehow really great. The conditions were so difficult, it didn’t feel so good on the stage but afterwards I could feel where we made the difference and it was really nice to do a great time like this. We scored a lot of points and this is also great for the team. Our hopes for the championship are really good so it’s a great weekend and a great seven days after our win in Spain.”

DARIUSZ POLOŃSKI, RALLYTECHNOLOGY, ABARTH 124 RALLY (Abarth Rally Cup winner)
“We had a lot of issues from the Qualifying Stage with an electrical issue we couldn’t solve during the rally. Yesterday evening we had to stop for a few minutes on the stage. The first half of the day the car was quite okay but on the long loop of four stages we had the same problem again and we could only continue with half power. But we are happy to be here because after yesterday we knew we could solve the problem with recovery and by restarting the engine, which worked to go but not to race.”

PAULO SORIA, TOKSPORT WRT, RENAULT CLIO RALLY5 (Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT winner)
“For sure it was a very good rally and I am so, so happy. My season started with a victory and ended with a victory and for my first season this is also good. We showed good pace on gravel and also on Tarmac at the end. I’m very happy and very anxious now for next season when we want to do a step up to Rally4.”

ANDREAS MIKKELSEN, TOKSPORT WRT, ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 EVO (FIA ERC champion*)
“My goal was to try to win the championship so I’m very happy. I knew it was going to be very, very tough with all the drivers so it was not for certain. But we had a good season, driving very clever and always getting points when we needed to. Winning this championship is definitely one of the highlights of my career. The goal was really, really tough but I really believed in the team, Toksport WRT, and the car, the Škoda has been working so well and was the car to beat. The season has been amazing but I thought before the season it was probably going to be harder for me to win ERC rallies than WRC2 rallies in the world championship. Looking back at the season I stand behind that. The pace and the speed the guys are doing in the ERC is really high and you really need to push to the limit if you want to fight for the win.”

ANDREA MABELLINI, NORTHON RACING, RENAULT CLIO RALLY5 (Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT title winner)
“We are so happy. I would like to thank so many people, particularly Toksport WRT because the car was perfect all the season with no problems. But the most important thank you is to Virginia [Lenzi, co-driver] who had the perfect season with no mistakes. I would like to thank all the guys of the Trophy because we are all friends and we are here to follow our dreams. This rally was so long and it was very tense to keep in the third position for all the rally. I am sorry we lost two competitors but that’s rally and we made it to the end. Now we can look forward to doing three races in the Renault Clio Rally4 with Toksport next season.”

*Subject to confirmation of the results by the FIA

ENDS