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Tag: Tom Kristensson

  • Tom Kristensson wins Junior WRC Rally Sardinia

    Tom Kristensson wins Junior WRC Rally Sardinia

    • Tom Kristensson took a commanding victory on Rally d’Italia Sardinia bouncing back from retirement on Rally Estonia.
    • Fabrizio Zaldivar becomes the first every Paraguayan to take a podium in FIA Junior WRC, taking his best ever result with the second.
    • Martins Sesks and Sami Pajari were hampered by issues but clawed back 11 Wolf Stage Points out of an available 15 between them, with Sesks finishing third and Pajari fifth.

    Sardinia, 11 October 2020: Kristensson led from the start, opening a convincing 20-second lead on Pajari and 40 seconds Sesks who span on the tight and technical first stage.

    Sesks responded to win on SS2, taking 10 seconds out of Kristensson’s lead and moved into second as Pajari struggled.

    Stage four brought a lot drama, seeing Sesks, Ruairi Bell, and Enrico Oldrati retire for the day as Zaldivar kept his cool and found himself third at the conclusion of the opening loop.

    Bell’s pace was impressive, with his confidence building stage to stage until he sent his Fiesta Rally4 hurtling into a bale at some speed on the second pass of Erula-Tula at the end of the first loop. 

    Kristensson was handed the perfect opportunity to close the championship points gap seizing another stage win on SS5 as flying Finn Pajari responded on the final stage of the day to claim his second stage win of the rally. By this point Kristensson already had a significant lead over second-placed Pajari but the drama continued in the FIA Junior WRC Championship on Saturday. 

    Kristensson extended his lead through Saturday’s six stages with Pajari hitting trouble on the opening stage of the day after breaking a driveshaft over a jump.

    Pajari’s retirement saw Zaldivar climb to second with a healthy gap to Martins Sesks in third who was a cut above the rest in terms of stage times. The Rally Estonia winner began his opening streak of stage wins on SS7, signing off stages eight and nine in the same fashion with a puncture preventing the Latvian from winning every stage of the loop. He returned to form on Saturday’s final pair of stages delivering back to back stage wins.

    By the conclusion of Saturday Kristensson held almost a nine-minute lead and four stage wins.

    Briton Ruairi Bell posted a good haul of top-three stage times and even looked set for a stage win on stage 12 until a spin cost him that opportunity. Bell was holding fourth until the final stage of the rally, where he retired after breaking a driveshaft.

    Pajari hit back with blistering pace on Sunday, taking a pair of stage wins on the first passes of Cala Flumini and Sassari-Argientera. The penultimate stage was cancelled meaning a stage point wasn’t awarded for SS15 however Pajari was straight back on it on the final stage, grabbing another crucial stage point. Kristensson openly admitted to sticking to a safe and steady pace to secure 25 classification points for his fourth victory in FIA Junior WRC. 

    Sesks now leads the championship with 68 points as Kristensson has closed the gap down to just ten points and is now second with 58 as Pajari has slipped to third with 54 points.

    The fight is even closer when discounting the top three’s worst classification points, with Kristensson actually leading on 58 points, Sesks second with 53 and Pajari third on 44. 

    Wolf Stage Win points have massively closed the gap between the top three and there are 60.5 points available and everything to play for on Renties Ypres Rally Belgium, the FIA Junior WRC Championship finale on 19-22 November.

    Maciej Woda, FIA Junior WRC Team Director, said: “Congratulations Tom and Joakim on a superbly driven rally with no mistakes, this was definitely redemption for them after retiring on Estonia and they are in a very strong championship position now. Fabrizio Zadlivar becomes the first ever Paraguayan to stand on the FIA Junior WRC podium which is a huge achievement for him and his country, he should be really proud. Martins and Sami, despite their issues delivered some incredible stage times yesterday and today. It’s evident they have a lot of motivation to do everything they can to win the championship which makes the prosect of the championship finale all the more exciting.”

    RALLY ESTONIA CLASSIFICATION
    1. Tom Kristensson / Joakim Sjöberg 3:07:49.1
    “We started very good, actually we started on a really high pace and went slower or safer from there! There have been many tough places on the rally, but we enjoyed it very much. There have been many twisty and nice places, this island is amazing, at the end the last day was about bringing the victory home and getting to the finish. I’m not 100% focussed on the championship still, I will focus on the next rally and push for a victory like here.”

    2. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano +11:25.4
    “This is amazing! It has been a long weekend, on Friday we secured a very good position and on Saturday we got second position which was a big surprise. After that it was very long for me with many things to manage to not get a puncture or hit anything with the car. Finishing today with my first podium in FIA Junior WRC is amazing.”

    3. Martins Sesks / Renars Francis +29:56.2 
    “Well the weekend was such a big rollercoaster filled with ups and downs for sure, after the fourth stage it felt like a nightmare and then we had issues with the car. But we managed some good points and third place, it’s incredible.”

    4. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio +37:01.1
    “For us it was an unlucky weekend, but this is rallying and we accept it. The first day we broke the steering arm and restarted the rally on Saturday, after that the rally was good for us as we tried to improve our pace notes and pace. I am super happy to finish, the car went well as well as the tyres.”

    5. Sami Pajari / Marko Salminen +58:14.7
    “The rally was really difficult so I needed to take the points that were available. We had some difficulties but mostly everyone did, it was really frustrating and sad to have them but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We tried to win the stages on Sunday to take all the stage points which worked out well in the end. I think that the three top guys have got a serious chance at winning the championship, maybe I am the weakest at the moment but you will never know.”

    6. Marco Pollara / Maurizio Messina +76:50.4
    “For me it wasn’t a good rally or week because I had a lot of problems but today I chose not to push because I wanted to make it across the finish.”

    RETIRED:
    Ruairi Bell / Darren Garrod
    Fabio Andolfi / Stefano Savoia

  • Tom Kristensson wins on Junior WRC debut: Rally Sweden

    Tom Kristensson wins on Junior WRC debut: Rally Sweden

    Kristensson wins Junior WRC on 17 Feb 2019. A WRC image

    Torsby, 17 Feb 2019: Tom Kristensson sent a clear message to the rest of the FIA Junior WRC Championship field, winning on Rally Sweden with a fine drive in his 200 horsepower EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R2.

    The top three is made up entirely of rookies to the Junior WRC championship, with Roland Poom and Jan Solans in second and third respectively.

    Kristensson is the third Swede to win the Junior WRC on Rally Sweden confirming his position as a championship contender.

    The Swede’s win is the tip of the iceberg when looking at the Junior WRC 2019 Rally Sweden story.

    The Junior WRC veteran Dennis Rådström had notched 10 impressive stage wins by the conclusion of stage 12, leading many to believe he was set to repeat his 2018 Rally Sweden victory. He started stage 13 but wouldn’t finish it thanks to a costly error and was forced to retire the car for the day.

    Rådström returned to the stages on Sunday morning, grabbing two stage wins from an available three, bringing home a decent points haul thanks to the one point per stage win allocation in Junior WRC.

    Kristensson inherited the lead from Rådström’s stage 13 exit and took a calm and measured approach after experiencing a tight and competitive fight in section two. Knowing he had a comfortable 1m44.0s lead over Estonian rookie Roland Poom, Kristensson elected for mistake-free finishes over stage wins to deliver his first Junior WRC win.

    Roland Poom had a steady start to Rally Sweden and made great progress on Saturday thanks to increasing confidence and costly errors made by those further up the road. He claimed his best stage result of 2nd on stage 13 compounding Kristensson’s winning philosophy of calm and cautious.

    Jan Solans rounded out the top three, taking a stage win along the way after a successful Saturday when he climbed from fifth to third on his debut in the Junior WRC. Although for most of the day he adopted a similar approach to Poom and Kristensson, he was able to find astonishing pace on stage 16, thanks to its sprint style nature, claiming his maiden stage win of the year.

    There were many favourites for the 2019 Junior WRC crown starting Rally, all of which having difficulties at some point along the way. 2018 Junior WRC Rally Finland winner Ken Torn was able to demonstrate his raw speed with two stage wins but several big mistakes removed him from podium contention. Junior WRC rookie Martins Sesks delivered times consistently in the top three with three stage wins. He was forced to retire due to a technical issue on Friday, surrendering second place and the chance for Junior WRC victory.

    FIA Junior WRC Championship Manager, Maciej Woda, said:

    “Following the Junior WRC on Rally Sweden has been unbelievable and great to watch. I don’t think anybody would have predicted our top three going into this rally, especially when you consider that they are all new to the Junior WRC Championship. We have had a very healthy spread of stage winners this weekend which is great for the season ahead and also the championship. Tom should be incredibly proud of his achievement, starting his first Junior WRC event and winning it on home soil is something very special. This rally has been a great test for the all-new Fiesta R2 car which has been majorly impressive from the feedback we have received so far. The car’s exceptional pace and consistency could not have been achieved without the support we have received from Ford and our partners at Pirelli and Wolf Lubricants.”

    JUNIOR WRC RALLY SWEDEN OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AND DRIVER QUOTES:

    1. Tom Kristensson / Henrik Appelskog 3:14:48.9
    “I think we have shown the pace and I am extremely happy about my confidence in myself; I had a plan and I stuck to it. It feels really good and I think it will be a great season. The biggest point for me was not to make any mistakes I think the most important thing was to find the right pace and remain calm. We have enjoyed the rally and of course there were some moments there’s no question about that but in the end it feels great. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season as I feel I’m really progressing with the car”

    2. Roland Poom /  Ken Jarveoja +1:31.2
    “We knew that this rally would be really hard and there wasn’t much point in pushing. I knew I had the speed to achieve a podium but there no point as it was a new rally for me. The other guys decided to push and made mistakes allowing me to achieve my first Junior WRC podium.”

    3. Jan Solans / Mauro Barreiro +4:09.2
    “It was really good for us to start the season in this way and I’m really happy about it. We were really consistent this weekend which helped us finish third. We are really happy with our performance this weekend; we improved a lot it’s a good result for us here in Sweden.”

    4. Tom Williams / Phil Hall +6:53.4
    “It’s a really good feeling for the event that I thought was going to be the trickiest this year. This one was just a survival and that’s from my experience last year of making lots of small mistakes and realising that I need the consistency. We made a lot of changes to my pace notes over the winter and made no mistakes on the rally so we’re really happy.”

    5. Sean Johnston / Alex Kihurani +11:43.1
    “The goal was simply getting to the end of the rally hoping maybe for a top ten result so to finish in fifth is really quite the gift. I don’t feel like we had the pace for this result, we’ve been persevering and other people have been having issues.”

    6. Martins Sesks / Krisjanis Caune +13:20.9
    “It’s been a crazy weekend out here. We started with a stage win on the first proper day of rallying, then we had a spin. When we got back in the rhythm it was unfortunate, but we had a technical issue so we retired and from there, there was not much that we could do.”

    7. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio +16:23.8
    “This was a weekend to forget for me, I could not get the right feeling in the car under the conditions but we have finished now so I am happy about that.”

    8. Dennis Rådström / Johan Johansson +23:31.1
    “We have to take a step and develop, the driving has been really great this week and we’re really happy as we are focussing on the positives.”

    9. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano +23:47.0
    “It was quite tricky, on the first day we were learning and to finish the rally which was the main goal. We finished the rally but it was very tricky for me as it was my first time here, the surface was not at its best and then we had technical issues on Saturday leaving us stuck at one point where we lost a lot of time.”

    10. Ken Torn / Kuldar Sikk +24:00.0
    “We finished in this position and there’s nothing we can do about it now, it’s made us a little bit unhappy and we lost time on the last two stages too. We need to make some progress for Corsica. Top five is ok but we want to win so we are going to keep working.”

    11. Julius Tannert / Helmar Hinneberg +41:24.8
    “It was a really difficult weekend for us, we have shown some good speed and some good pace. In the end we had a bad Saturday with a technical issue and then we went off and damaged the car. We retired on Saturday and restarted on Sunday but this isn’t the position we wanted to end our weekend in.”

    12. Nico Knacker / Tobias Braun +49:09.3
    “We learned a lot about the rally and the difficult conditions this weekend. We had contact on the last day with a snow bank which isn’t great. Overall the experience has been fantastic this, we learned a lot and know what to do for next year.”

    13. Raul Badiu / Gabriel Lazar +53:38.8
    “It is indeed a disappointing start to the championship, but we learned a lot, WRC is not a flat-out rally from the start to the finish. You have to use your brain a lot in these tricky conditions when it is very easy to make mistakes and have numerous punctures like I did. We can’t change time, so we’re already look ahead to the next rally.”