The 19-year-old opted to use four
Hankook tyres only during Saturday’s opening loop to preserve the remaining
eight tyres from his allocation for the final three loops of stages.
It resulted in him leading at the
end of Saturday’s action by 35.2sec. And combined with his caution-first
approach on Sunday, the Scottish driver continued a long line of McRae family
success in the ERC with victory.
His father Alister took an
outright ERC win in 1996, his late and legendary uncle Colin triumphed in 1992,
while grandfather Jimmy posted his last victory in the championship in 1989.
“It’s very special, especially on such a
rough event,” said Peugeot 208 Rally4 driver McRae, who hit back from a damaged front-right tyre on SS8.
“We played it quite smart and used our brains. It’s a very nice feeling. It’s a
good start to the championship and hopefully we can keep this going on the next
rounds and see where we end up but it’s a very good start.”
Estonia’s Jaspar Vaher had led in the early
stages before dropping back after he was forced to change a damaged wheel on
SS6. His charging recovery earned him second place ahead of Mille Johansson,
who stopped twice on the same stage with damaged tyres.
The Swede was fastest in the
Hankook-equipped Junior ERC category on all but one stage today as he claimed
third.
Aoife Raftery was a career-best fourth for
Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, 5.9sec ahead of team-mate and Junior ERC
rookie Jack Brennan.
Davide Pesavento, who was also making his
first appearance in the championship, completed the top six for ACI Team
Italia.
Alfred
Kramer’s refusal to give in after a car-damaging roll on SS6 netted seventh
overall followed by Liam Müller and Daniel Polášek, who restarted on Sunday
after damaging his Peugeot’s suspension on Saturday’s opening stage.
Geronimo
Nerobutto, who stopped on day one with a broken radiator, returned to the
action on Sunday and finished 10th on his maiden Junior ERC outing.
ADAC Opel
Rally Junior Team’s Calle Carlberg was second on his Junior ERC debut until a
mechanical failure put him out on SS10.
Having
overcome myriad technical issues on leg one, Mattia Zanin was in third place
when a mechanical failure forced the ACI Team Italia ace out on the same stage.
Finnish
Junior ERC rookie Leevi Lassila was a non-finisher as were Patrik Herczig,
Karl-Markus Sei and Aleksandar Tomov.
Timo Schulz,
a Junior ERC event winner in 2023, had hoped to restart following overnight
repairs to a damaged radiator only for an engine temperature issue to force the
German Opel driver’s retirement this morning.
The
all-asphalt Rally Islas Canarias is next for the Junior ERC stars from 2-4 May.
Finland
Italy
Hungary