The leading four drivers in this year’s World Rally Championship are separated by a relatively slim 15 seconds at the top of the Central European Rally leaderboard after its first full day.
But it’s been a “frustrating” Friday for the man who lies fifth in the points standings. Adrien Fourmaux languishes more than 90s off the pace in seventh overall after a torrid time aboard his M-Sport Ford Puma.
Having won CER’s Rally2 class on its WRC debut last year, Fourmaux was confident of being in the fight for a podium on this year’s edition. But barring mishaps for others, that is already looking a long shot with Fourmaux some 80s behind third-placed Ott Tänak at the end of Friday.
The third stage of each loop, Šumavské Hoštice’s 10 miles, proved particularly tricky for the Frenchman, who dropped 23s through its first run alone, and then another 19s on the second pass. This was the stage most affected by cars in front taking cuts and bringing dirt onto the road.
Fourmaux spent Friday fighting to find grip and stability – neither were forthcoming
Fourmaux was one of four drivers to suffer hybrid system failure through the morning stages, but he was not hiding behind that as a reason for his lack of pace.
“We’ve been struggling really all day with the car, especially on the dirty stuff,” Fourmaux told DirtFish. “The car is not taking the grip at all, and on the bumpy ones, the car is unstable. So I’m always fighting with it, and it’s definitely not easy.
“We can see on some splits where it starts to be dirty, we are nowhere. So really, really difficult. I did expect a bit more for this event. Last year we won the rally in the RC2 class, so I did expect a bit better. So really, definitely a frustrating day.
“But let’s see. The rally is not finished – there are still two long days. We’ll try to catch some position. For sure, it seems to be difficult to get a podium, but you never know. I said the same in Finland, and at the end we were on it.”
Key to a turnaround in Fourmaux’s fortunes over the weekend appears to be understanding why his Puma is behaving differently than it did on his pre-event test and on last weekend’s RallyLegend exhibition event.
Team-mate Grégoire Munster, running eighth, also spent Friday complaining of relentless understeer aboard his Puma
Fourmaux explained: “We’re going to work on the car, because definitely the car is different on the test and on the RallyLegend. So we expect that maybe something is not quite right.”
Asked whether he thought it was purely a setup issue, or if the car had previously run different parts, perhaps as part of a development program, Fourmaux responded: “Well, it’s both.
“But also, especially bars and springs, there is something wrong because the stiffness is different and it should be the same. So, and definitely at some point, if it’s different, there is something wrong.
“We’re going to try to improve and find the issue and as soon as it’s going to be fixed then we can push again.”
