Fri 24 Jun 2022

Soria cool on Liepāja hopes

Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT leader Paulo Soria is keeping a cool head going into Tet Rally Liepāja next week (2 - 3 July).

The Argentine has won all two rallies of the five-round series so far to build a 17 point advantage in the one-make Renault Clio Rally5 championship.

Victory at next week’s Latvian encounter would seriously strengthen Soria’s title bid, but the 27-year-old insists he doesn’t want to get too carried away - especially since his visit to the rally didn’t go to plan in 2021. 

Last year, Soria retired after running wide into a ditch on the very first stage. He would later rue that mistake as he missed out on the title to Andrea Mabellini by just two points. 

“Of course, it’s important to think about the championship,” Soria told FIAERC.com. “We know that a potential win in Liepāja would help us a lot. 

“But, again, I don’t want to think too much about this because last year I did a stupid mistake on this rally. We had won the [Clio] Trophy in Poland and I was maybe too confident going into Liepāja.

“I definitely don’t want to do that again this year,” he continued. “We know that we are on a good level in the championship and we already have two wins, but we just need to keep focused on our objectives and try to have a clean rally.”

It’s been over 12 weeks since the last gravel round of the Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT series at the Azores Rally. 

And, while many of the crews may be slightly out of practice, Soria was able to notch up some valuable mileage at Orlen 78th Rally Poland earlier this month with a Rally4-specification Clio. 

He and co-driver Marcelo Der Ohanessian retired on the final day with a mechanical issue, but their experience remained a positive one. 

“For sure, it was good preparation and it’s always nice to keep in touch with driving a rally car.

“It’s been a while since Rally Islas Canarias, but the fact that we did Poland with the Clio Rally4 is so good to keep the training and to keep improving all the time, which is very important. 

“I am just really, really excited to get to Latvia. This event is on gravel - my favourite surface - and I hope we get the chance to do a good result.” 

Finland
Starts: Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at 4:00:00 PM
Italy
Starts: Friday, July 26, 2024 at 8:30:00 AM
Hungary
Starts: Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 9:30:00 AM