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Czech pair take positives from return to ERC action

FIA European Rally Championship frontrunner Jaromír Tarabus suffered final-stage despair on the Circuit of Ireland, but was pleased with his pace on the first event of his 2016 campaign.

The Northern Irish asphalt rally was only the second event for Tarabus and co-driver Daniel Trunkát in their R5-specification ŠKODA Fabia, but they were sitting in a fine fifth position - just 4.9 seconds behind fourth - before their efforts to try and gain a place ended in disaster early in the final stage.

Trunkát admitted that an error on his part led to the off into a hedge on Banbridge, a stage where they also came unstuck in 2015. "Contrary to last year, there were not 30 spectators able to get us back to the track," he said.

Tarabus said: "We managed to keep a very good pace in the competition. Mainly the second section of the first leg came up well, when during one stage we managed to do nearly the same time as Breen and Kajetanowicz."

Trunkát added: "We verified that thanks to the Fabia R5's quality in combination with settings from [team boss] Roman Kresta, we can run with the best, and a small loss per kilometre to the close leaders of the ERC is more than promising for the following events."

Tarabus and Trunkát will compete in the next ERC round, the SEAJETS Acropolis Rally on 6-8 May, looking to repeat their fine fourth place from last year's event.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com