Campana completes solid first day of WRC action

Pierre Campana made his much anticipated debut in the World Rally Championship with Drive-Pro today as the ADAC Rallye Deutschland got underway in Trier.

The 26-year-old FFSA-supported Corsican acquitted himself well against far more experienced drivers and in changing conditions to end the opening day in 21st position after six competitive stages in his Michelin-shod MINI John Cooper Works.

Friday’s action has seen participants negotiate a repeated loop of three special stages - the 24.28km Ruwertal/Fell, 22.47km Grafschaft Veldenz and the 19.92km Moselland - totalling 133.14km.

Pierre has just one competitive rally under his belt with the MINI, having triumphed at last weekend’s Richard Burns Memorial Rally in the UK, so Rallye Deutschland is a real learning curve for the WRC newcomer. Pierre has, therefore, approached today’s opening stages in a deliberately cautious and professional manner with his sole objective for this rally to complete all stages and to acquire as much experience and information as possible.

Pierre reported significant issues with his brakes right from the outset of the first stage but was forced to live with the problem until lunchtime service when the team changed the entire brake system. Alongside his co-driver Sabrina de Castelli, Pierre navigated his way around the problem to end the morning’s three stages in 23rd position overall having been 23rd in SS1, 30th in SS2 and 20th in SS3.

Showing his ability to demonstrate immediate improvements in performance, and with renewed confidence in the car following the brake changes, Pierre impressed in SS4, a repeat of the 24.18km Ruwertal/Fell stage, ending the stage in 14th place with a near 30 second improvement on his morning time.

Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse in the tricky SS5 when he suffered a spin around 5km from the end of the stage that lost around 50 seconds of time. Following rain conditions in SS2 earlier in the day, the course conditions were slightly ‘green’ in places which made driving conditions tricky. Thankfully, Pierre was able to resume without further incident and conclude the stage but saw an inevitable drop in his overall position.

Pierre bounced back in style in SS6, showing his mettle to take the 15th quickest time in the stage and to recover his overall position to 21st.

Pierre Campana commented: “Overall I am pleased with my performances today considering it is my first WRC event with Drive-Pro and in the MINI with Michelin tyres, just two weeks after the announcement that I was to take part in Rallye Deutschland. Today, my focus was on finding a good feeling from the car and completing each stage to the best of my ability with a clear objective to learn and improve all the time. We had some brake problems in this morning’s three stages which we were unable to fix before service, and this held us back a bit. Once the guys made the changes to the brakes during service, I found much more confidence with the car and I was able to set a more representative pace. The rain that fell in SS2 earlier in the day left the course a bit green in SS5 in the second loop and I would definitely have benefitted from having the gravel crew to understand the conditions better. Aside from that, I was pleased with our progress and it’s very encouraging to end my first ever day of WRC in 21st but with pace for at least the top 15. There’s more to come tomorrow, and I am soaking up every minute of this tremendous opportunity from Drive-Pro and the FFSA.”

Saturday will see the drivers contest eight stages, again two loops of the same four stages, over a total distance of just over 150km.