ERC
Gryazin to learn and fly on ERC comeback
Multiple FIA European Rally Championship event winner Nikolay Gryazin is ready to learn and fly as he prepares to make his comeback to the series where he made his name.
Since making his ERC debut on Rallye International du Valais in October 2015, Gryazin has claimed five wins and seven podiums in the all-action championship. He also finished runner-up in 2018 and claimed the Rally2-based Junior ERC crown in the same year.
ERC debut came in Switzerland as a teenager back in 2015
© ERC
The 29-year-old’s latest ERC appearance, his 34th in total, follows another impressive FIA WRC2 Championship campaign, his first with Lancia Corse HF driving a Hankook-equipped Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale.
Explaining what’s brought him back to the ERC during Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal, Gryazin explained: “First of all, I just want to drive as we’ve finished the WRC season. To drive more on gravel is every time something you can learn. We can find some things in the set-up to improve, to see what we can do for the gravel, and also to drive more with the Hankook, to have more information from the tyre on the gravel for the next rallies.
“As usual the guys in ERC are really fast and for sure it will not be an easy run. We will try to fight like usually, we are trying and for sure we will try to have some fun. But, as usually when you are going to the rally, you just want to show the pace to try to fight. I’m ready, I want to work with the driving, with the car and it’s one more opportunity in a strong field to try to show the pace.”
Lancia-powered Gryazin took a WRC2 win in 2026
© Red Bull Content Pool
With the potential for rain next Friday and Saturday, Gryazin is preparing to call on experience gained from last May’s WRC-counting Vodafone Rally de Portugal, which took place in mixed conditions.
“There was rain all the time [on the WRC round] and we know what to expect, at least we know the set-up for this kind of surface. But even when it’s raining it’s a good opportunity to drive because in the dry conditions it’s easy for many drivers to be fast, but if you are able to be fast in the wet it’s super-good training for the driving skills and for the understanding. Even if it’s rain in some cases it will be better for me just to get more experience in every kind of conditions.”
Getting your speed right is important for getting the Fafe jump right
© Red Bull Content Pool
Gryazin’s guide to landing it on Lameirinha
Competing on the ERC season-deciding Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal, gives Nikolay Gryazin two more opportunities to fly over the legendary Pedra Sentada jump on the Lameirinha stage, better known as the Fafe stage during the FIA World Rally Championship-counting Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
“In the beginning when we were driving there for the first time it was a complicated jump because you don’t know in which pace you need to arrive,” said Gryazin, whose personal record approach speed to the jump is 95kph. “Now doing it many, many times, it’s more easy and understandable the pace you need to arrive. But you need to not lose your head because you have one huge jump before in the stage and you start to feel like you can jump more and more and more. Sometimes you arrive to this jump with the feeling that you will do an amazing jump, but you just need not to forget to brake.
Fafe return provides another chance to learn on gravel
© Red Bull Content Pool
“In the first [pass] if you do not brake and jump too high it can damage the car and it will be over but in the last stage why not jump really high, but also you need to not forget to not hurt yourself. But when you arrive to the jump you need to understand what the speed is, but you understand this by the feeling, and it also depends of your confidence. If you feel confidence enough to brake less, then you brake less. It’s very important to brake just a little bit. If I remember [well] you brake just a little bit on the right side because if you go in the middle or the left side you might be landed close to the dirt bank and we’ve seen for many years that people are touching the left side and getting some damages.
“This jump is not smooth, the kick part of the end of the jump sometimes is causing this situation where the front starts to dive too much early and that’s why we are normally braking there to create some momentum before the lifting from the jump, then you are creating some small momentum with the throttle just to create more lifting effect so the car will jump more straight and not trying to reach it with the nose down.
“It’s very important to keep flat when you are jumping off the jump and then you can release the throttle when you land because if you start to brake and you brake on the jump you might face the front in the ground, and it starts to roll. But if you pass a lot of jumps in your career it starts to be quite a common thing to do. Nowadays it feels quite nice when you know how to jump on this kind of stage, you just drive there and it’s a pleasure.”
Following the Pedra Sentada jump – or Salto da Pedra Sentada to give it its full name – a fast, uphill right-hander has to be negotiated prior to the flying finish.
Experience helps in getting the Fafe jump right
© Red Bull Content Pool
“So far [I’ve had] no [moments there],” Gryazin said. “Normally you already know the standings [of the rally] but even if you do a mistake there it’s not so critical in my opinion because you can just hit a little the dirt bank, but it will not stop the car. But the profile of this corner means all the time you can go there quite fast and use this inside hook to place the car and, somehow, it’s really a good last corner each time you pass it and for me there’s never an issue.”
Gryazin starts next week’s ERC season-deciding Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal on the back of winning the Memorial Bettega event, held as part of Rallylegend in San Marino last weekend in honour of the late Lancia-driving hero Attilio Bettega.
