In a thrilling finish to the six-round season, the first
with Hankook as the official tyre partner, Maior had to beat fellow Peugeot 208
Rally4 driver Daprà to become champion, a feat he achieved with a winning
margin of 7.1sec on Rally Hungary.
“I don’t have words for this, it’s unbelievable for sure,”
said Romanian Maior, who was co-driven to Junior ERC title glory by elder
sister Francesca. “It was a difficult year, we tried everything to be in the
ERC in every round and we did it. We are so happy. There are a lot of people
who deserved this win. Okay, me and Francesca, we are in the car but the other
people are next to us and they help a lot. Thanks to HRT Racing, to Napoca
Rally Academy and all my friends who made this possible. It’s an amazing
feeling.”
Maior’s prize is a season in the FIA Junior WRC Championship
when he will step up to four-wheel drive in a Ford Fiesta Rally3 run by M-Sport
Poland.
After overcoming mechanical issues, Daprà completed
Saturday’s opening leg 9.1sec behind Maior. But Maior responded on Sunday, winning
SS9 and SS10 to extend his lead to 13.9sec with just the Power Stage remaining.
While Timo Schulz set the fastest time on the rally-deciding
test – his second of the final leg – Maior took his first victory of the season
by 7.1sec ahead of Daprà.
“We started the year trying to do our best for the Junior
ERC title and unluckily for seven seconds we didn’t win Junior ERC,” said Daprà,
who still did enough to take the ERC4 title, which was decided over all eight
rounds of the season. “It was the biggest fight of my life because it doesn’t
happen every day. I am so proud and so thankful and I am also so happy for
Norbert. He is a very honest and fair person and he deserves his victory.”
Slovenian Mark Škulj maintained third position aboard his
Opel Corsa Rally4 for his first Junior ERC podium with Patrik Herczig fourth,
despite the Hungarian reporting his Peugeot’s set-up was too soft for the
mainly dry conditions, as Ola Nore place fifth.
Nore started Rally Hungary as part of the three-way title
fight but dropped out of contention with tyre damage on SS2. “I’ve been very
unlucky,” the Norwegian Opel driver said. “In one stage today there was a crash
and in one stage I stalled so this rally hasn’t been good with ups and downs
all the time.”
Mille Johansson finished sixth on his first start in an Opel
Corsa with Schulz fighting back from powersteering issues on Saturday to take
seventh, courtesy of back-to-back stage wins on Sunday afternoon.