The result, which made the ADAC Opel Rally
Junior Team driver the fourth different winner of the year, ensured second
place in the final standings behind champion Mille Johansson.
Max McRae finished second on the
challenging Polish stages, which became even more demanding when rain fell late
in the morning, as Daniel Polášek claimed his first Junior ERC podium in third.
“It
feels really good,” said Opel Corsa Rally4-driving Carlberg. “After Wales I had
to refocus because the focus had been on only one thing this year, which was to
win the title. I tried to do as good as I could at the end of the season to
earn myself a seat for next year so I’m super-thankful for everything and
super-happy. With four out of six podiums we’ve shown we can be very
consistent.”
Apart
from a turbo issue on Saturday morning, Carlberg’s only other major cause for
concern occurred on SS11 when he went off the road after the flying finish.
“We
had to manage a small brake issue this morning but we managed to be fastest on
every stage so all was good,” Carlberg said. “We were off after the finish of
the last stage where you really gain a second if you go flat. I did and went
off into a field but that was all planned!”
McRae,
who competed in a TRT Rally Team Peugeot 208 Rally4, said: “Obviously we wanted to win but we wanted to use our brain as well,
we wanted to finish the rally and finish the year on a high. I’m happy for
Calle he was second in the championship and I’m third after a tough year with
two wins on different surfaces.”
Polášek said: “It’s a good feeling to
finish first time on the podium. Many times I was close but this time is a
really good feeling. We started really bad this afternoon because we didn’t
have enough tyres to go full-wet, so we went with two wets and two softs. We were
expecting it to be more dry so we put the softs in the front and wets in the
rear and it was horrible, I couldn’t steer, I couldn’t accelerate and we lost
quite a lot of time compared to [Davide] Pesavento so the result was a worry
but luckily we could push on the next two and we are here.”
For Davide Pesavento, fourth place equalled
his previous best result to round out his maiden season at international level.
The ACI Team Italia driver said: “We continued to improve our driving and
continued to learn, also with the rainy condition because we don’t have much
experience. We had damage to the front-right tyre [on SS13] and we had to change
it to a slick tyre so we finished the last stage with a slick tyre.”
Along with the four Junior ERC drivers,
Romanian Ciprian Lupu, who is tetraplegic, and rising Polish star Michał
Chorbiński, also chased ERC4 points on Rally Silesia. While Chorbiński’s focus
was on securing his national class title, Lupu made it three points finishes
from three starts.
The wheelchair user said: “It’s the third
event this year and I wouldn’t dream it before, it’s a big achievement for us,
especially in the tricky stages. We could have had a better pace but it was all
about to finish the rally.”
Japan
Poland
Turkey