M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta WRCs had the pace but not the luck at this weekend’s ADAC Rallye Deutschland – Teemu Suninen having the speed to challenge for the podium were it not for an unfortunate technical issue through the early stages.
A broken wire on the first stage of Friday morning was the culprit – denying the young Finn any chance of challenging for the top results. But having restarted the following day, he and co‑driver Jarmo Lehtinen were determined to showcase what might have been.
Posting a series of top times, the Finns were consistently amongst the front runners and would have been challenging for the podium were it not for their earlier misfortune. Continuing their strong performance into the final day of competition, they ended on a high by setting the second fastest time through the points-paying Power Stage.
Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson were also delivering a strong drive and improving with every kilometre. Making their asphalt debut with the top-specification Fiesta, the young Brits got closer to the leading times and were outperforming a number of their more experienced rivals on occasion.
Saturday proved a trickier day with a mistake in the morning and much to learn on their first encounter with the Panzerplatte stages, but they persevered – showcasing their mechanical skills by changing a steering arm on the road section and continuing to gain the vital knowledge and experience needed to succeed at rallying’s highest level.
Team Principal, Richard Millener, said: « It’s great to see that we had the speed to challenge for the podium, but obviously fairly frustrating that we had an issue so early on. We knew from the test how much potential Teemu would have here, and he’s proven that over the past couple of days. It’s a shame not to get the result he deserved, but he can still take a lot of confidence away from this weekend. Gus also delivered another strong performance and is getting a lot of experience under his belt. This was his first time with a world rally car on Tarmac, and we saw him get a lot closer to the leaders – beating some more experienced guys through some stages and even equalling the World Champion on one! He knows that there’s still a lot to learn, but we’ve seen some great progress already. Considering how little time he’s had in the car it really is incredible how calm he is and how well he deals with the pressure. I certainly hope we can continue his development over the remainder of the season. »
Gus Greensmith (9th) said: « It’s been an awesome weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly we were able to get on the pace. We were never right at the front, but we were mixing it with the likes of Mikkelsen and Lappi. They have a lot more experience, so for our first time on Tarmac I’d say that was pretty good. The time was there, but we still need to improve the consistency – and once we do that it will make our lives a lot easier. It was a really positive weekend and the only real negative was clipping a tree on Saturday – but that did give me some practice at changing a steering arm! »
Teemu Suninen (Restarted) said: « It’s not the result we wanted, but I’m still really pleased with our performance and my pace was even better than I had expected. My aim was to finish in the top-five, but actually it looks as though it could even have been enough to fight for the podium. The technical issue on Friday means we don’t take any strong points away from this weekend, but I think our second fastest time on the Power Stage says a lot about our pace. I was really pleased with that and really enjoyed my driving – so that’s a big positive for the future. »
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION 1. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 3:15:29.8 2. Kris Meeke / Sebastian Marshall (Toyota Yaris WRC) +20.8 3. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +36.0 4. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +58.5 5. Dani Sordo / Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1:16.6 6. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1:46.2 7. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Citroen C3 WRC) +1:56.3 8. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferme (Citroen C3 WRC) +2:02.2 9. Gus Greensmith / Elliott Edmondson (Ford Fiesta WRC) +6:22.2 … 29. Teemu Suninen / Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Fiesta WRC) +41:54.2
WRC2 Pro – Camilli secures second
The all-new EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R5 delivered a strong result at this weekend’s ADAC Rallye Deutschland – Éric Camilli and Benjamin Veillas securing second place in the FIA World Rally Championship’s premier support series, WRC 2 Pro.
Improving with every kilometre, the Frenchman fine-tuned the set-up and dialled into the terrain to deliver stage-winning pace.
Setting the fastest time through one of the championship most demanding and iconic stages, the pairing were the quickest crew through the 41.17 kilometres of Panzerplatte – and maintained that same level of performance throughout the remainder of the competition.
Continuing to challenge for the fastest times through the closing stages, the pairing confirmed their pace before picking up a puncture on the final speed test. And were it not for 50 seconds worth of time penalties, they could have been in a battle for victory.
There was further good news for the all-new Fiesta as ‘Pedro’ and Emanuele Baldaccini secured another points finish in the WRC 2 category. And further afield in Norway where Anders Grøndal and Marius Fuglerud secured second place in the penultimate round of the Norwegian Rally Championship – second only to WRC 2 regular Ole Christian Veiby.
Team Principal, Richard Millener, said: « This car is completely different to its predecessor and it has taken Éric a while to adapt to the different style of driving. There is so much technology and so much potential in this car and it’s great to be seeing that now. Éric has shown some really good speed this weekend and were it not for the puncture and the check-in issues, we could have seen him battling for victory. It’s also great to see our customers delivering such strong performances with their newly delivered cars – ‘Pedro’ having a great run here in Germany, and Anders Grøndal producing a great drive in Norway. Congratulations to both of them from the whole team, and we look forward to seeing some more strong results as the season continues. We have an on-going test and set-up programme lined-up to ensure we keep these strong results coming, and I’m excited to see the team unlock even more potential in the coming weeks and months. »
Éric Camilli (2nd WRC 2 Pro) said: « This has been a very good weekend for us and we have made a lot of improvements since the last outing in Finland. At the start of the weekend we knew we had to prove some things, but we worked hard and got closer and closer to the top times – eventually setting the fastest time on Panzerplatte which is the most important stage of this rally. It was very good to have this improvement and see the real potential of the car. » ‘Pedro’ (9th WRC 2) said: « This is such a difficult rally but I can tell you that it was an incredible experience – especially with this car. The car was perfect all weekend and we really enjoyed all four days of competition. Also the M-Sport organisation has been fantastic – giving us everything we need to finish our third rally in as many events. To finish again in the points, for us really is heaven. »
Press release M-Sport Ford, picture Ludovic Carnal/Sport-Auto.ch
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