17 Mar 12

WRC legend Sainz
back to winning
ways

Carlos Sainz swapped the state-of-the-art Volkswagen Polo R WRC he is helping to ready for 2013 for an historic Porsche and promptly won Rally de Espana Historico together with Luis Moya - who co-drove him to his world titles in 1990 and 1992.

Spanish legend Sainz had never taken part in a historic rally before but won commandingly, despite a mechanical problem that meant his Porsche 911 was only firing on five cylinders for some of the time.

The Rally de Espana Historico was the opening round of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship, held entirely on asphalt over two days close to Avila, just outside Madrid earlier this month. It was a family affair for the Sainz clan, as Carlos’s brother Antonio also competed on the event and finished fourth in another 911.

“It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to be back with Luis again,” said Sainz, who is a consultant to Volkswagen and is spearheading the development of the all-new Polo R WRC. “Maybe it was harder for Luis than for me at first, because he has not been competing for a long time and I have always been driving. But it’s like riding a bike: it always comes back to you. I enjoyed the experience although I’m not sure if I'll have time to do anything like this again soon, as we are very busy with Volkswagen.”

Sainz and factory driver Sebastien Ogier are carrying out the bulk of Volkswagen’s testing this year, backed up by test driver Dieter Depping.