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Stepping up in style: ERC Junior graduate Kristensson wins on Junior world debut

Tom Kristensson made an instant impact on his FIA Junior World Rally Championship debut, winning his class just three months and four days after completing his FIA ERC Junior Championship campaign with victory on Rally Liepāja.

Kristensson’s achievement on Rally Sweden in a Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta R2 completes an impressive rise from national level to the world stage via a crucial year of experience-building in the ERC, rallying’s established training ground.

“We have shown the pace and I am extremely happy about my confidence in myself; I had a plan and I stuck to it,” said Kristensson, who was co-driven – as ever – by fellow Swede Henrik Appelskog. “It feels really good and I think it will be a great season. The biggest point for me was not to make any mistakes. The most important thing was to find the right pace and remain calm. We have enjoyed the rally and of course there were some moments, there’s no question about that, but in the end it feels great.”

Kristensson beat former ERC Junior Experience pupil Roland Poom into second place with Mārtiņš Sesks, who headed Kristensson to the Pirelli-supported ERC Junior title last year in an identical ADAC Opel Rallye Junior Team ADAM R2, finishing sixth after retiring with a technical issue on leg one, having gone fastest on Friday’s first stage.

“It’s been a crazy weekend out here,” said Latvian Sesks. “We started with a stage win on the first proper day of rallying, then we had a spin. When we got back in the rhythm we had a technical issue so we retired, there was not much that we could do.”

There was more ERC Junior success on Rally Sweden thanks to Nikolay Gryazin’s fine run to fifth in class on his world debut in a Sports Racing Technologies ŠKODA Fabia R5. The Russian won the ERC Junior Under 28 title in 2018 and followed home Emil Bergkvist, another former ERC Junior champion.

Rhys Yates finished P10 with Tamara Molinaro, the ERC Ladies’ Trophy winner from 2017, coming home in P11.

This year’s two-tiered FIA ERC Junior Championship gets underway on the Azores Rallye from 21-23 March. ERC1 Junior is for young stars in R5 cars with ERC3 Junior for rising talents in Pirelli-equipped R2 machinery.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com