After
suffering from a puncture on the opening day on SS3, the Frenchman found
himself 15th in the WRC2 standings and more than two minutes
behind rally leader Sami Pajari going into day two of the Mediterranean-based
event.
However,
a mind-blowing show of pace in his Pirelli-shod Citroën C3 Rally2 saw the DG
Sport Compétition pilot catapult himself up the standings to be sitting in
second by the end of the penultimate day, 12.0sec clear of Vodafone Rally de
Portugal winner Jan Solans.
He
and new co-driver Benjamin Boulloud secured a stage win on every single stage
on Saturday, winning every one of the eight tests by at least eight seconds.
“The
best days are when you are leading but Saturday was my most memorable day on
gravel. The confidence inside the car was amazing and I was pushing to the
limit,” Rossel recalled.
It
was too late to challenge an omnipotent Sami Pajari, but Rossel was able to
hold off Solans’ assault on second place on Sunday, eventually coming out on
top, securing the stage win on SS14 and finishing 7.0sec ahead of the Spaniard,
who grabbed a hat-trick of stage wins on the final day to set up a nervy
finish.
The
29-year-old was understandably overjoyed with the result and the pace shown and
heaped praise on his team, who he has previously described at stage ends as ‘like
a family’ to him.
“It
was an amazing sensation in the car, the confidence was crazy and the team
worked so good”
“For
sure, Solans was very fast today [Sunday]. On the loose surface I am a bit less
confident in the car, but I kept the second position and I think it’s a better
result than I expected.”
As
much as Rossel’s pace comes down to his own skill and the speed of his recently
upgraded Citroën, the Frenchman also spoke on the importance of concentration
on the rough gravel surfaces of Sardinia, particularly on Sunday when Solans
had him in his targets.
“After
the first stage [on Sunday], maybe I was sleeping a bit, but I know the
[Sassari-Argentiera] stage and it’s never easy – a lot of loose sections and we
know because Séb Ogier lost the [overall] rally in the last kilometres.
“You
need to keep the concentration all the time, but when you fight like that, I
think it’s better because you are pushing to the limit and you don’t think
about 10 or 15 seconds.”
Thanks
to his second-place finish, Rossel now sits top of the tree in WRC2. There will
be no premature celebrations in the DG Sport Compétition pilot’s camp however,
with much of the season still to play for and plenty of other drivers around
him awaiting point-scoring events.
“It’s
not easy to say the championship is done because we have a lot of drivers who
are not doing the same rallies as me.
“We
have good speed on every surface this year and the plan is to win more rallies
on gravel now.”
With
a win in Monte Carlo under his belt and two more podiums since, Rossel will be
looking for a huge effort on his remaining WRC2 events to set himself in good
stead against the likes of team-mate Nikolay Gryazin, Pajari, Solans, Oliver
Solberg, Gus Greensmith and compatriot Pierre-Louis Loubet, all of whom have a
handful of point-scoring events left to run.
“On
every event this year I have been playing for the win and I have had the speed
to win, but it’s never easy because the rallies are still so long. To finish
second after a big issue on the first day is a very big result for me.”