ERC
Ollé father and daughter out to Master the ERC again
Sasa Ollé and co-driving daughter Rebeka have been true to their word by expanding their FIA European Rally Championship campaign after winning on home soil recently.
The Ollés vowed to contest further rounds of the series if their outing on ERC Staff House Rally Hungary proved successful.
Having won the FIA Master ERC Championship section on the Veszprém-based event earlier this month, they’ve now entered next week’s BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia (29 - 31 May), swapping their Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo for the latest RS Rally2 version.
The Ollés topped the Rally Hungary Master ERC podium
© ERC
Although the high-speed gravel event represents unchartered territory for 56-year-old Ollé, he’ll go up against ERC Staff House Rally Hungary class rivals Dariusz Biedrzyński, Jos Verstappen and Martin Vlček, plus Norwegian category newcomer Henning Solberg.
Following his Master ERC triumph in Hungary ahead of event rookie Verstappen, Pirelli-equipped Ollé said: “It's an incredible feeling to finish first in the Master category in this international field. We drove fast but safe. But after we managed to win the Nagylőtér stage I told my daughter: we won't be gentle, we'll give it a good push – and it worked. We only had one technical problem during the weekend: after a jump we landed on a rock, which cracked the starter.”
His 29-year-old daughter Rebeka added: “We just came to have fun, we didn’t expect to win, but we love this rally, my father has been here many times, he loves the stages. I love co-driving for him because I can speak louder to him in the car, at home it’s always, ‘yes Dad’. It was a good family weekend and a really good feeling that we could race Jos Verstappen.”
Verstappen and Ollé celebrate their achievements in Veszprém
© ERC
Verstappen combines and learning and enjoying in ERC
Jos Verstappen maintained his FIA Master ERC Championship points lead with second place in class on ERC Staff House Rally Hungary.
What served as the second gravel rally of his career, the Formula One podium finisher overcame two damaged tyres, a spin and a missed junction to follow local hero Sasa Ollé home in eighth overall.
Rally Hungary provided Verstappen with another learning opportunity
© ERC
“It was important to finish because there was a lot of learning and still a lot of learning to do,” said Verstappen, who became a grandfather in the build-up to the event following the birth of his son Max’s first child, Lily. “Gravel is a different level, but I really enjoyed it. It was very rough conditions and knowing how hard you can push and learning the notes and the stages, that’s very tough to do. But you need to finish the rally to learn, it’s all about getting knowledge of the stages getting the notes right, we’re working on it and we will be all right.”
Verstappen will make his BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia debut fresh from winning the Belgian championship-counting Sezoensrally after he won all 12 stages of the Tarmac event on 17 May.
