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Villagra to hit back from Acropolis exit

"It was a very difficult event for us this year"

By Franck Drui

23 June 2011 - 13:54

Federico Villagra has vowed to put the disappointment of retiring from the Acropolis Rally behind him and concentrate on winning this weekend’s round of the Argentine championship, Rally de Catamarco.

Villagra was two stages from the finish in Greece when an engine problem struck his Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team Fiesta RS WRC and forced him out of the action.

He said: “Greece is a rally I have done well at in the past but there is no doubt that it was a very difficult event for us this year. It’s just felt like one problem after another and unfortunately it seems that the underlying problem is something that the team simply didn’t have enough time to sort during the short service breaks we have on rallies. I think the car needs to go back to M-Sport to be looked at properly.

“It was such a shame not to make it to the end but this is the nature of rallying and I must not dwell on it too much. Now I have the fifth round of the Argentine championship to look forward to so I will be focusing my attention on that and hope that I can finish there with a victory.”

With Villagra’s next scheduled WRC appearance not until Rally Australia at the end of the month, the multiple domestic champion will be able to focus on his national campaign at the wheel of a Maxi Rally-specification Ford Fiesta.

“I have quite a few rallies in Argentina now,” said Villagra. “In fact I have seven rounds until December from now. I have one national event this weekend and then 20 days after it’s another one. They are really compressed now because rallies were not allowed to take place 20 days before and 20 days after Rally Argentina.”

Villagra won on his last appearance in the Argentine championship and is confident of more success during the remainder of the year as he bids to defend his title. “The car has really good speed but being a new car it stops for stupid things like ignition cables, little things,” said Villagra. “If the car doesn’t stop for sure we have a great car to fight because the speed is fantastic.”