How pre-rally target made the difference for ERC leader Tempestini

Tempestini proved a class act aboard his new-for-2024 Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 on the Veszprém-based event, netting his maiden ERC victory following an action-packed ERC opener.  

“I just started this rally with the target to be as fast as we can,” said the 29-year-old Romanian. “It was hard to manage the situation because the road was really, really rough in some places. It was really easy that something will surprise you in these kind of stages so we had to keep our focus really high.”  

Tempestini, who is co-driven by Sergiu Itu, prepared for V-Híd Rally Hungary with an outing on Rally della Val D'Orcia the previous weekend.  

Despite the Italian Gravel championship event marking his debut in his Keane Motorsport Fabia RS Rally2, Tempestini lost out on victory by a slender 1.6sec.

“For sure this rally helped because the car is new and I’m racing with different tyres this season comparing to last year. I still think I have to learn more about the car because in some sections I don’t know what to expect but the car is good, the pacenotes were good and this is important.”  

Having split his time between chasing more silverware at home and making sporadic ERC appearances, Tempestini is making the ERC his priority in 2024.  

“I am still working for this season but my target is do seven events,” he said. “For sure we will try to do all the gravel events and I would like to do Roma and Barum. Then we will see what we can do [with the budget].”