Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux says he will enjoy a better Christmas after beating two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä to victory on last weekend’s Rallye National Hivernal du Dévoluy.
Through challenging wintry conditions, the Frenchman led from the second stage to win the event by 15.5 seconds from the Toyota-driving Finn.
A delighted Fourmaux told DirtFish: “After this win, I will spend a better Christmas that’s for sure. It gives me the confidence that I can drive the car, I understand more the car and I know a bit more the settings that I need for this car for my driving.”
Fourmaux made significant changes to the i20 N Rally1 across the two-day, 10-stage event based north-west of Gap.
“To be fair,” he added, “I think I tried nearly everything. That was really, really good for the knowledge of the car and to understand everything. At the end I was comfortable with the car, which I wasn’t at the beginning.
Fourmaux took victory on his first Hyundai start, against two-time world champion Rovanperä
“I’m happy with the step we have made, it was really positive. I drove the car for the first time a little bit in the place where the team does the rollout for the cars on Tuesday, then I came to shakedown on Friday.
“To begin with the car wasn’t set up for me, it was giving some understeer at the entry to the corner and then quite snappy oversteer at the exit. We worked throughout the event on the geometry, the bars, the springs and the differential. The car was quite stiff, so we softened it towards the end and I was really comfortable.
“I’m happy because this was not an easy event to learn the car; it was one of the most difficult small Monte Carlos that I’ve done! You know in all the Montes I’ve done, I don’t remember it being so tricky with proper snow coming in the morning, then it was melting during the day and then in the evening we had black ice – like proper black ice where you really don’t see or have an idea where it’s coming. It was a proper test.”
As well as delivering a better holiday period, Fourmaux’s win has also given him more confidence – especially the win over Rovanperä and Toyota.
“I didn’t expect to beat Kalle because he knows the car,” said Fourmaux. “It was really nice to have him there to compare our times and then it’s really positive to win against him. We can only be glad for this result.”
