ERC
Rovanperä takes on Lefebvre in ERC Greatest Graduate voting
ERC Greatest Graduate voting enters its third day today (Thursday) with a battle between two drivers who used the FIA European Rally Championship to make their international-level debuts.
Since the ERC was restructured in 2004 into the hugely successful format recognisable today, an endless stream of drivers have built experience competing at European level either at the start of or during their rise to the sport’s highest echelon, the FIA World Rally Championship.
Throughout November, FIAERC.com is highlighting 16 drivers – selected by the ERC’s media team – who have done just that. And it’s calling on fans of the championship to help decide the best of the best graduates through an online poll that opened on Tuesday and closes following the grand finale on Friday 28 November.
Employing bracketology, voting is available through the ERC’s social media channels with a minimum 24-hour window to vote for each pairing. The winner will be announced on Saturday 29 November.
Rovanperä was a stage winner on his ERC debut
© ERC
Rovenperä v Lefebvre: Youngsters who reached the top
Kalle Rovanperä: Prior to taking the WRC by storm, double world champion Kalle Rovanperä used the ERC to try out international competition for the first time. Six days after turning 17, the Finn entered Rally Liepāja in October 2017 and came close to winning after a tense battle with Nikolay Gryazin. The promising pair were evenly matched on leg one’s rain-hit stages, with minor technical issues – plus a time-consuming overshoot on the day’s final gravel test – delaying Rovanperä’s Ford Fiesta R5. Gryazin started the deciding leg 18.3sec ahead of Rovanperä but came under instant pressure when the Finn outpaced him by 7.1sec on the first stage of the day. That result cut Gryazin’s lead to 10.2sec, which became 10.1sec when Rovanperä, with Jonne Halttunen co-driving, went quickest again on SS9. But Gryazin responded in style on SS10, going fastest by 7.1sec, before eventually winning by 18.5sec. Three weeks later, Rovanperä and Halttunen made their WRC debuts.
Winning in Ypres put Lefebvre on course in 2014
© ERC
Stéphane Lefebvre: Lefebvre first made his name in the ERC 2WD Championship in 2013 by finishing second in class on his first two appearances with the Peugeot Rally Academy. He entered the inaugural Junior ERC season in 2014 and claimed the title after a run of three mid-season victories after his campaign got off to a troubled start when his car caught fire on Rally Liepāja. He won the Junior WRC title in the same year and made his World Rally Car debut as part of the factory Citroën squad the following summer with 10th place on ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
A reminder to Visit FIAERC.com tomorrow (Friday) to find out the next two ERC Greatest Graduate contestants and don’t forget to vote through the ERC social media channels.
