The all-new EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R5 delivered a strong result at this weekend’s ADAC Rallye Deutschland – Éric Camilli and Benjamin Veillas securing second place in the FIA World Rally Championship’s premier support series, WRC 2 Pro.
Improving with every kilometre, the Frenchman fine-tuned the set-up and dialled into the terrain to deliver stage-winning pace.
Setting the fastest time through one of the championship most demanding and iconic stages, the pairing were the quickest crew through the 41.17 kilometres of Panzerplatte – and maintained that same level of performance throughout the remainder of the competition.
Continuing to challenge for the fastest times through the closing stages, the pairing confirmed their pace before picking up a puncture on the final speed test. And were it not for 50 seconds worth of time penalties, they could have been in a battle for victory.
There was further good news for the all-new Fiesta as ‘Pedro’ and Emanuele Baldaccini secured another points finish in the WRC 2 category. And further afield in Norway where Anders Grøndal and Marius Fuglerud secured second place in the penultimate round of the Norwegian Rally Championship – second only to WRC 2 regular Ole Christian Veiby.
Team Principal, Richard Millener, said:
“This car is completely different to its predecessor and it has taken Éric a while to adapt to the different style of driving. There is so much technology and so much potential in this car and it’s great to be seeing that now. Éric has shown some really good speed this weekend and were it not for the puncture and the check-in issues, we could have seen him battling for victory.
“It’s also great to see our customers delivering such strong performances with their newly delivered cars – ‘Pedro’ having a great run here in Germany, and Anders Grøndal producing a great drive in Norway. Congratulations to both of them from the whole team, and we look forward to seeing some more strong results as the season continues.
“We have an on-going test and set-up programme lined-up to ensure we keep these strong results coming, and I’m excited to see the team unlock even more potential in the coming weeks and months.”
Éric Camilli (2nd WRC 2 Pro) said:
“This has been a very good weekend for us and we have made a lot of improvements since the last outing in Finland. At the start of the weekend we knew we had to prove some things, but we worked hard and got closer and closer to the top times – eventually setting the fastest time on Panzerplatte which is the most important stage of this rally. It was very good to have this improvement and see the real potential of the car.”
‘Pedro’ (9th WRC 2) said:
“This is such a difficult rally but I can tell you that it was an incredible experience – especially with this car. The car was perfect all weekend and we really enjoyed all four days of competition. Also the M-Sport organisation has been fantastic – giving us everything we need to finish our third rally in as many events. To finish again in the points, for us really is heaven.”
