Giraudet: Novikov will get better with age

Co-driver Denis Giraudet insists the best is still to come from Russian star Evgeny Novikov after the 21-year-old landed his maiden podium finish in the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia in Portugal last weekend.

Novikov was promoted from third to second place in the aftermath of Mikko Hirvonen’s exclusion following a hugely impressive performance in the M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC he shares with experienced navigator Giraudet.

“There is no limit for Evgeny, he is very, very good,” said Giraudet, who celebrated his first WRC podium finish in a decade on Vodafone Rally de Portugal. “But what people have to remember is he is so young. On Friday when the conditions were really awful he showed he had fantastic car control and because he is so young I think he could see through the fog!”

Novikov has earned a reputation as been fast but prone to error since his emergence on the world stage in 2009, as was proven again by his spectacular crash on the final day in Mexico last month.

“Evgeny is sometimes caught out because when you are so young you don’t have enough experience to build the confidence and you are doing mistakes,” said Giraudet. “You must always remember he is 21. Imagine if he was able to do three more years doing all the rallies there would be no mistakes because he would know the stages.

“In Mexico is was just a misfortune with dust in the car, really bad luck. Before the crash he was asking me if the dust was bad for his lungs because he doesn’t know these things. You can imagine when you don’t feel confident about things like that you can do mistakes.”

Novikov said: “Denis and I have both been waiting for this moment for a very long time and it has been an amazing weekend for us both. He has helped me a lot and I hope we can achieve more podiums together in the future.”