Monarri waits again to show his ERC Open speed
Alberto Monarri got another chance to show his FIA European Rally Championship pace on the Azores Rallye – even though he wasn’t able to get the opportunity to go the full distance.
For the second event running a mechanical issue stopped the Suzuki Motor Ibérica driver in his tracks on the opening leg although he was able to restart on leg two and set several rapid stage times in his Swift R4LLY S to make it two ERC Open class podiums in succession.
“We had a problem with the front diff on the first day and we don’t take more risk for a more [serious] issue so we decided to stop the car and fix it to do all the kilometres [on the second day],” the 40-year-old Spaniard explained. “You can imagine in the first stage it’s disappointing because it was my first time here and I wanted to do all the stages so I was quite sad. But it’s the rally and on the second day I was very happy with our rhythm.
Azores Rallye 2022: Event Recap
“It’s the first time I do these stages, Sete Cidades was absolute madness but I was enjoying. The speed was good, I need more kilometre to know the car and the rally, I know I can go faster but we had to be a little bit careful to do all the kilometres [on the second day] and not stop the car again.”
With Carlos Cancela co-driving Monarri was fastest on four out of seven stages on Sunday.
“Everything was fine for me, in the last stage we had a flat tyre but it’s no problem, we hadn’t anything to win or to lose,” Monarri said. “But all the day we had good rhythm and I’m really happy for that. I’m now looking to the next race on Tarmac [at Rally Islas Canarias] and I hope the rally will be better for me than this one.”