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ERC Junior Antunes: Azores result could have been better

Pedro Antunes has said his fourth-place finish in the FIA ERC3 Junior Championship section of the Azores Rallye wasn’t a true reflection of his pace on the challenging gravel rally. But added that he has high hopes of being “fast” during the remainder of the season.

Competing under the new FPAK Portugal Team ERC with support from his national federation, Antunes led, spun, dropped back, powered back into contention by starting the final day 8.8s behind the leader only to damage his car’s suspension on SS12, forcing him to settle for fourth in his Pirelli-equipped Peugeot 208 R2.

“It’s actually good to be at the finish after the mistakes I did on Saturday morning and on the first stage of yesterday,” said Antunes. “The general rally wasn’t bad. It could be better of course but we will continue to keep working to be better.

“On the first stage on Friday, at the first hard braking point to a hard left we miss it so we went into the front and lose a lot of time. It was a mistake that cost us a lot. Friday afternoon was better than the morning and we pushed as hard as we could.

“We stopped at a turning on stage 11 and lost a lot of time. Then on stage 12, in a right corner, the back part of the car went off and we hit a wall really bad and the car was really hard to drive. I was expecting better from myself but in the tricky conditions we had it affected us a lot but we keep fighting and I think I can be fast this season, even on the rallies I don’t know.”

Zdroj: fiaerc.com