Lyssia Baudet (Belgium), Suvi Jyrkiäinen
(Finland), and Claire Schönborn (Germany) took the momentous occasion of their
maiden WRC event in their stride, starting with a Meet the Crews session against
the iconic backdrop of Prague Castle in front of a packed-out crowd on Thursday
afternoon. From there, they moved to the Velká Chuchle racecourse on the
outskirts of Prague for the rally's opening stage.
The tricky Klatovy test followed, made even
more difficult thanks to the darkness, but it was a trouble-free evening for
each of the contenders.
Friday’s second leg provided the first full
day of action, with a repeat of Klatovy, followed by five further stages in the Czech Republic.
Low mist and damp conditions under the
trees increased the challenge for the Fiesta pilots, successfully navigating
the morning stages whilst more experienced crews further up the road faltered.
However, on the afternoon stages,
Schönborn’s day was cut short when her Fiesta developed a technical issue and
despite the best efforts of M-Sport Poland to cure the problem in the short
remote service, she was forced out on the penultimate stage of the leg.
“It's disappointing not to finish today but
there have been a lot of positives so far and I am pleased with our times,”
said Schönborn. “There has been so much to learn and I am doing so many things for the
first time. I have never driven competitively in the dark before so Thursday
night was challenging but now our focus is on what we can do during Saturday’s
stages.”
Feeling good with her set-up and increasing
in confidence as Friday progressed was Baudet.
“It's been a challenging start to the rally
for me,” opined the Belgian. “The donuts have been quite difficult to do but
the car is feeling good. I have a lot of confidence in the set-up and we don’t
need to make any changes. Now I need to improve my driving tomorrow, but I am
learning a lot.”
Jyrkiäinen is sampling Tarmac closed-road
stages for the first time and also saw her times progress on the afternoon’s
repeated loop of stages.
“It's been an interesting start for us I
guess, some problems with the donuts but overall the car is amazing to drive
and I love the atmosphere and environment of this WRC event,” she said. “It's
been a great experience so far and now I must try to learn more about the car
and how far you can push it. I am finding this out with every stage.”
Japan
Poland
Turkey