Oliveira impresses team with Friday effort

Daniel Oliveira has impressed his bosses at the Brazil World Rally Team after he achieved his target of completing a trouble-free opening day of Rallye de France Alsace in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

Oliveira will start day two of the world championship qualifier in 22nd position alongside co-driver Carlos Magalhaes from Portugal.

Prior to the event, Oliveira’s BWRT team manager Paul Howarth set him a target of completing the competitive route with his car unscathed.

“We completed all the kilometres and we enjoyed a trouble-free run [on Friday],” said the 26-year-old Brazilian. “We tried not to make any mistakes, the stages were very difficult and dirty, it’s so easy to make a mistake. Generally speaking I’m happy since these are the situations where you learn the most. I felt much comfortable with my driving on this surface especially because we found a good suspension set-up following the pre-event test we had on Monday. We will approach he stages [today] in the same way we did [yesterday].”

Oliveira is currently on course to land BWRT its second manufacturers’ championship point of the season.