Sat 18 May 2024
After scoring the first points for Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally2 in the FIA European Rally Championship when he completed the V-Híd Rally Hungary top 10 last month, Filip Mareš added to his tally with 15th position on the recent Rally Islas Canarias.
While more ERC points could prove crucial in the final championship reckoning, Mareš was more concerned about the progress he was able to make aboard his ACCR Toyota Dolák-entered Yaris.
The Las Palmas-based event gave Czech talent Mareš his first kilometres in his new-for-2024 Yaris on a high-grip, pure asphalt event after snow and an early stoppage on Rallye Šumava Klatovy, a round of the Czech championship two weeks previously.
“It's a promising step for us but still there is more space to improve so we will keep working and hopefully it’s getting even better,” Hankook-equipped Mareš said. “We started the race with a gap of two seconds per kilometre to the fastest guys and now we are close to 0.5sec to the fastest guys, which is quite promising progress. But still this last 0.5sec is the toughest to find but we need to find a way. We still have a lot of things to work on.”
Mareš, who is co-driven by Radovan Bucha, set a total of six top-15 stage times on Rally Islas Canarias.
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