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How Franceschi went from despair to ERC victory thanks to a rival’s intervention

Jean-Baptiste Franceschi won on his FIA ERC3 Junior Championship debut on Rally Islas Canarias last weekend – but only after a rival team came to his aid.

Franceshi was beating Saintéloc Junior Team driver Sindre Furuseth when he arrived a remote refuel zone on the opening morning of the Tarmac event.

Unfortunately, a team member got lost on route leaving Franceschi seemingly high and dry until the Saintéloc team stepped in by refuelling the Frenchman’s Ford Fiesta R2T.

Although he dropped out of the lead due to a penalty incurred for his delay in reaching stage three, Franceschi was able to make up the lost time in the afternoon and remained in front until the finish, narrowly missing out on the overall ERC3 category win on his first Rally Islas Canarias start.

“I have to say thanks to the Saintéloc team,” said Franceschi. “We were waiting for the refuelling but the guy from our team was lost and nobody came. But we were lucky because Saintéloc helped us to put some fuel in the car. If not, we would have stopped so I want to say thanks to them.”

Of his victory in the Pirelli-supported category, Franceschi said: “To win is amazing, it was a good opportunity from M-Sport and I want to thank them for this. The car worked very well and I enjoyed a lot the stages.

“I hope we can do some more ERC rallies. We will talk about it later with Maciej Woda from M-Sport and we will see, why not? I love the ERC, the atmosphere is very nice and I hope it can continue. The competition was really close, we had a penalty and we can have some regret, but that’s rally and everything can happen anywhere and in any moment. I have always loved Tarmac, I am from France! At the end the result is very nice.”
 
Zdroj: fiaerc.com