Adrien Fourmaux has taken his second consecutive win in the British Rally Championship by claiming victory on the Jim Clark Rally.
M-Sport WRC2 driver Fourmaux won the asphalt event in the Scottish borders aboard his Ford Fiesta Rally2, leading home multiple BRC champion Keith Cronin’s Volkswagen Golf GTI R5.
Key to Fourmaux’s success was his pace on Friday night’s stages. He was 12 seconds faster than third-quickest Cronin through the opening 11.8-mile Longformacus test, then improved his own time by 6.8s when the stage was re-run in darkness.
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆@jimclarkrally@BRCrally@MSportLtd @redbullmotors pic.twitter.com/kX5U3BoyHW
— Adrien FOURMAUX (@AdrienFourmaux) May 27, 2023
That gave Fourmaux an overnight lead of 28.1s over second-placed Cronin, who was competiting on his first asphalt event for nine months.
The M-Sport driver was then able to control his pace through the remaining six stages on Saturday, content to allow Cronin to chip away at his lead on the fast, tricky tests which featured plenty of loose gravel on the surface.
Fourmaux’s eventual winning margin over Cronin was 29s, after the Irishmman was handed a 10s penalty for taking an incorrect route on SS7. Local driver Euan Thorburn (Volkswagen) finished third overall, just 0.2s behind Cronin after the penalty was applied.
“We are really enjoying the rally,” said Fourmaux. “It was really, really technical and really slippery in some sections. We had a really good day yesterday and then we were managing today.
“So we can be happy with the car. A good position on the weekend so we are happy.”
Asked how he was finding the BRC, Fourmaux added: “Yeah, really enjoying [it]. It was different with the gravel and on Tarmac, so we see the next event, so it’s really interesting.”
The Junior section of the event was by Kyle White (Peugeot 208 Rally4) ahead of the Ford Fiesta Rally4 of Kyle McBride. DirtFish’s own Luke Barry (Ford Fiesta R2) finished third on his first-ever rally start, while Max McRae was forced to retire following driveshaft failure on his Opel Corsa Rally4.
