Laurent Pellier debuts in Junior WRC: “We have everything to discover”

Laurent Pellier, how did your recognition of the Rally Sweden ?

Perfectly well. We discovered quite varied routes with an extremely fast first day. We didn't expect this. It was almost too straight, too fast. The second had a little more of what we know, that is to say big curves like a big 8. I had to adapt my notes because there are a lot of very long turns that we are not not necessarily used to it.

Do you like fast stages?

That's what I like, but we recognized at 70 km/h and it's not easy to plan ahead to evaluate what it will be like in the race, especially since I haven't tried the car before. THE rally. Since I take my notes based on the route and not necessarily the speed, logically this shouldn't be a big problem.

Laurent Pellier and Marine Pelamourgues will have a lot to discover during the Swedish rally (Photo: Loïc Rocci)

With Marine Pelamourgues as your navigator, have you already understood the deterioration of the special stages?

Without saying that I was disappointed, what surprised me was that I expected there to be more snow or at least that the layer on the road would be thicker. It was -15 and even -19 C° when we arrived, but the thermometer went back to 0 C° and it started to melt very quickly. There was already earth in certain sections during the reconnaissance and we know that we will encounter very damaged parts.

What is your objective?

It is very difficult to locate ourselves. We have everything to discover, starting with the special stages. Next we have to learn the car, because the shakedown was my first laps with it. I also don't know the team that takes care of it and riding with studs is completely new to me. That's a lot of parameters. I prefer not to project too much. We will see if we are able to aim for the podium.