Teemu Suninen was impressed by how Hyundai i20N Rally1 behaved on tarmac stages and believes that Central European Rally will be a big opportunity for him, but he knows that the conditions will be different compared to what he faced last weekend.
Hyundai Motorsport confirmed that Suninen will drive the third i20N Rally1 at Central European Rally which will be his fourth outing of the season. The Finn had the chance to get behind the wheel of the car at OBM Bucklige Welt Rallye, which is an Austrian event, with the view of spending more time inside the i20N and to gain further mileage on tarmac. However, it must be mentioned that his participation was out of competition last weekend which means that it was like a test for him.
Central European Rally will be held on 26-29 October in three different countries (Austria, Czech Republic and Germany) and will include 18 stages with 311 competitive kilometers.
"The weather was good for the spectators", Suninen said.
"It was sunny and quite warm.
"This was making it quite a bit easier for me to step into the car, but I would have been fine with some tricky conditions.
"Central Europe will be quite a lot later – it’s five or six weeks and conditions will be quite different then.
"I have shown really good pace on smooth Tarmac with the stable grip level in places like Corsica or Spain, even Germany.
"But Central Europe could be a bigger challenge than Monte Carlo.
"This year’s Monte was relatively straightforward – I was ice-note crew for Lappi and in the end there were not so many marks for the ice or the snow.
"The pictures what I have seen from the CER stages, it seems quite tricky and then I spoke to the locals in Austria and they told me the stages could be quite different with some fast places and then some narrow, dirty places – it will be a big challenge".
Finally, he believes that this tarmac rally will be a big opportunity for him: "I think it is.
"It could be a good chance for me.
"Last weekend, I was impressed with the car.
"I had done some roll outs before on Tarmac, but nothing like this.
"It was very good.
"Coming from the slow corners, the exit really kicks you.
"On the gravel, you need to be exiting the corner at more than, maybe, 100kph to avoid getting a lot of wheelspin.
"On the Tarmac, it’s a lot less and with the full hybrid boost, it was really impressive.
"I think in the twisty places, the speed’s going to be very high in CER – these cars collect the speed so quickly".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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