FIA Middle East Rally Champioinship

Four of the five Pirelli Star Driver crews finished the opening event of their 2009 campaign, the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, which ended in the Algarve Stadium, Faro, this afternoon (Sunday). Ten competitors and five Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Xs were revealed to the world’s media on Wednesday afternoon at the official launch last week – with the first competitive action in this exciting FIA-led initiative starting 24 hours later. The event ran in perfect conditions, with bright sunshine and temperatures around 20 degrees, offering the drivers the chance to shine in their new cars. Only one driver completed the whole route without having to re-start under SupeRally regulations, but the other four all collected valuable mileage and competition time in the Mitsubishis between suffering steering and suspension problems - some of which were due to mechanical failures and some of which were accident damage.

The FIA Pirelli Star Driver scheme was boosted by the arrival of FIA president Max Mosley who attended the event to lend his support to both the FIA’s inaugural young driver programme, while also underlining the importance of the FIA’s EveryRace policy.

Pirelli Star Driver report

It was the youngest of the Pirelli Star Drivers, the 18-year-old Martin Semerád, who stole the limelight in the Algarve Stadium, posting the fastest time of all Pirelli drivers on the first stage. The Czech Republic driver’s glory was short-lived, however, as Finn Jarkko Nikara scorched into contention on Friday morning’s first stage proper. Nikara was 15 seconds faster than his nearest Pirelli team-mate, Mark Tapper. Semerád’s promising start disappeared completely on the SS3, when he slipped off the road and down a bank. After the high of the first fastest time, Martin endured the low of being the first Star Driver retirement as he burned the clutch out on his Lancer trying to get it back up onto the road.

Nikara’s Friday monopoly on the top Pirelli spot continued until the fifth stage, when he too joined the day’s list of retirements suffering steering damage. Tapper immediately continued where the Scandinavian had left off at the head of a now three-strong Pirelli field. Despite this being the drivers first competitive day in their new cars, they were already posting strong times among the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship runners, with both Tapper and Cypriot Nicos Thomas running in the top six among the global Group N competitors.

Nikara returned on the second day to strengthen the Pirelli Star Driver challenge. And he made history on Saturday morning’s opening stage. Nikara became the first Pirelli driver to win a stage and post fastest Group N time overall on a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Tapper remained comfortably inside the Production points – the Kiwi driver having registered for the PWRC series. He was joined by the returning Semerád who blew his Friday blues away with sixth fastest time on stage eight.

Tapper’s point-scoring aspirations were hit for six when he retired with damaged power steering ahead of SS10. The New Zealander reported clipping a rock in SS9 and thought he had a puncture and/or suspension damage. A glimpse underneath the Mitsubishi revealed more sinister trouble and forced him out of the event. The flip side of this was that it allowed Tapper more time for the medics to work on an old back injury which had flared up on the eve of the event.

Saturday morning wasn’t a great time for the Pirelli Star Drivers, with Nikara and Semerád departing for the second day in succession with suspension damage. Their cars would be returned for the final day, but Thomas would be the first driver to retire one of the Mitsubishis completely. Thomas slid off the road in SS10, damaging the left-rear of his Lancer extensively. The Ralliart Italy mechanics were unable to return the car to the stages for the final day when they discovered the rear transmission was damaged.

Through all of those trials and tribulations, South African driver Jon Williams made sensible progress through the stages. Williams was the only man never to have competed in a conventional Group N four-wheel-drive car before – or on the left hand side of the car. Despite the handicap of such a lack of experience, the winner of the Pirelli Star Driver element of the FIA African Rally Championship set times which improved day after day.

The drivers

Car 61: Nicos Thomas/Stéphane Prévot
Nicos Thomas said: “We had an alarm on the car on the last stage of day one. I slowed down a little bit because I didn’t want to damage anything and I was afraid that I had broken something on the car. This was only the second time I had competed with English pace notes, so I was still getting used to that. My priority on this event was to get experience with the car, not to try and be fast. I was surprised at how tricky some of the stages were and how difficult it was to get the notes right all of the time – there are so many small crests which need to be absolutely perfect. We made a few changes to the notes on the first run through the stages, but my co-driver Stéphane [Prévot] was really good; he has so much experience. It’s disappointing that we didn’t finish the event. I went off and hit the left-rear of the car, we also ran over some big rocks. It was quite a big impact which did some damage to the suspension and transmission; this is why we didn’t re-start on the final morning. Now I have to make sure I finish the next event in Sardinia. The good thing for me is that we were showing some speed in some of the stages before the accident.”

Car 62: Jon Williams/George Gwynn
Jon Williams said: “I’m really pleased with the way the event went. I set myself targets through the event and we achieved them. Obviously, I didn’t have as much experience of the car as I wanted, but I was only going to get that by staying on the road. The super special on Thursday night didn’t quite go to plan; the one thing I absolutely wanted was a clean run to settle my nerves – not to slide wide and touch the barrier, but that’s what I did. Once we got into Friday and the gravel stages, everything worked better for me.

“This was the first event for George [Gwynn, co-driver] and myself and we gelled really well. The stages were really tough. On the first view, they don’t look so bad, but there is so much detail in there, so many blind crests and tight little technical sections. Saturday afternoon was really hard work. I had a couple of moments in there as well. We were pushing on a bit in fifth gear when we ran wide and dropped into a ditch. I kept my foot in and the car popped out the other side. My heart stopped, but as well as getting the experience and time in the car, we have to be pushing in some places. These first few events are really the ones I have targeted. I know a bit more about driving in the heat on rougher gravel rallies – it’s Finland and then the asphalt where I will struggle, so I have to get it right and quickly before Italy.”

Car 63: Jarkko Nikara/Jarkko Kalliolepo
Jarkko Nikara said: “The first day of the rally was a little bit mixed. We were setting some good times early in the day, but then I hit a rock which had been pulled out by one of the drivers ahead. The suspension was broken and we couldn’t do anything. We had to park the car and wait for the next day. That was a little but frustrating, we could have been leading the Production Car WRC runners at the end of the first day – and I knew that I had been driving safely, without making any risks. It was a little bit the same on Saturday. Having re-started with SupeRally, after some suspension damage, I wanted to drive for experience; this car feels a little bit different to the Mitsubishi I have at home, so it was good to have time driving the new car. I was happy with my times on Saturday and Sunday – we were close to the Production drivers again. After doing the first event in the Pirelli Star Driver scheme, I just want to get straight to Italy to start the next rally now.”

Car 64: Martin Semerád/Bohuslav Ceplecha
Martin Semerád said: “This hasn’t been the easiest of rallies for me. Retiring early on Friday and Saturday meant that I didn’t get much time in the car, which was what I was hoping for on this event. It was really good to get here to Portugal and to get the event up and running. I have been thinking about this for a very long time now and suddenly, when we were at the launch on Wednesday afternoon, it was incredible. It was very disappointing to go off the road on Friday. There was a complicated section in the notes and I missed the second part and we slid down the bank. Then on the next day, a damper broke and I was out again. The final day was okay. We lost the first stage because we were yellow flagged for an accident earlier in the stage, which meant I had to slow right down. After that, it was good. I didn’t get to spend much time in the car competing on this event. I have to put that right on the next round.”

Car 65: Mark Tapper/Jeff Judd
Mark Tapper said: “Aggravating an old back injury at shakedown before the rally was not the best way to start the event. Once I got into the car, the adrenalin took most of the pain away, but every now and then we’d have a heavy landing which knocked the wind out of me. I made a mistake at the first corner of the second stage, we went straight on at a left-hand corner going over a bridge – we then had to sit and wait for the dust to settle before we could find the right road to get going again. The fact that Sébastien Loeb had made exactly the same mistake did make me feel as little bit better!

“We had a bit of a problem with the car: it was cutting out on the medium and slower-speed corners. It didn’t actually stall, but after a period of heavy braking the engine would die momentarily. This made it hard to commit to corners. The team changed just about everything on the fuel and electrical side. On the second day, we also had something wrong with the car’s handling, it just wasn’t handling at all. We had to retire from Saturday after a power steering problem. We hit a rock in the road and that was that. It was very good to be able to get back out in the car on Sunday and get some more experience of the car and the conditions. It’s been a fantastic launch event for the Pirelli Star Driver programme, but now I need to focus on getting my back sorted out for the next event in Sardinia.”

The other quotes

Max Mosley, FIA President said:

“We’re delighted with the success, so far, of the Pirelli young driver programme. It’s really very pleasing to see people coming into the World Rally Championship who would otherwise not have an opportunity to do that. It’s very pleasing to see the enthusiasm and interest coming from the drivers and the interest that is engendered in their regions.”

Phil Short, Pirelli Star Driver Supervisor said:
“I’m very pleased with the performance the Pirelli Star Drivers have achieved here. We came here and we didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t know if the drivers would be within one second or two seconds per kilometre of the pace. I’m happy to report we have had three drivers under one second per kilometre off the fastest Production Car time. We have had a pretty high rate of attrition on this event, but that was possible when we have inexperienced drivers who have made some mistakes, five new cars – don’t forget the Lancer Evo X had only been run by Ralliart Japan on Rally Japan before – and a rough rally. I’m not totally happy that we lost so many cars on the second day, but that’s the nature of this sport sometimes. The good thing is that, apart from Nicos, the drivers have all been out again on the final day and we have run the cars closer to the specification they will be in in Sardinia and Greece. We’ve run the cars a bit higher, which the drivers didn’t like, but they will have to get used to it for the next two events. From that perspective, today has been a good test for the guys. And, of course, the driver who really needed the seat time, Jon Williams, is the driver who has come through and competed on every kilometre. Now, we look forward to Sardinia. This has been a very exciting start. We will go away and work on the cars in the good break we have before Italy and then the guys will be back and raring to go again.”

Mario Isola, Pirelli Rally Manager said:
“This event has been a very good start for us. It has been a tough rally. We have seen some of the drivers retiring from the rally. This is partly because the drivers have hit something and partly because of something on the car. We have to have a look at the car. In testing, there were no problems with the suspension, but we will work on this. Having said that, the Mitsubishi is still a new car. Jon [Williams] has finished the event and we are really pleased for him. Jon is the one with the least experience, so it was vital for him to do all three days. His speed is coming, you can see this in the stage times. For the other drivers, the performance is pretty much there. It was encouraging to see Martin Semerád, Mark Tapper and Nicos Thomas all setting good times. We kind of knew [Jarkko] Nikara was capable of this – he was very fast. He showed on Friday that, without problems, he is capable of leading the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship – for this, we are very happy.”

The next event

The Pirelli Star Drivers are back in action on the sixth round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Rally d’Italia-Sardegna (May 21-24). The Olbia-based event will present a similar challenge to this weekend’s Rally de Portugal, with a fascinating combination of fast and technical gravel roads. Running at the start of the Mediterranean summer, however, the temperatures will be higher on the Italian island.

The results

• 23rd Jon Williams (SA)/George Gwynn (GB) 4h32m40.8s (11th in Group N)
• 28th Mark Tapper (NZ)/Jeff Judd (NZ) 4h41m21.2s (14th in Group N)*
• 38th Martin Semerad (CZ)/Bohuslav Ceplecha (CZ) 5h00m32.7s (22nd in Group N)**
• 41st Jarkko Nikara (FIN)/Jarkko Kalliolepo (FIN) 5h07m26.7s (24th in Group N)**
• Rtd Nicos Thomas (CY)/Stéphane Prévot (B)

* Continued under SupeRally regulations
** Continued under SupeRally regulations on two days