Croatia: Will Nicolas Ciamin play spoilsport again?

In 2023, Nicolas Ciamin and his co-driver Yannick Roche stood out. With a Polo, they were in 2nd place in WRC2 when they made a mistake in SS12. Now operating a Hyundai i20 Rally2, the Nice native still hopes to be able to be a leader in WRC2.

Published on 18/04/2024 à 20:13

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Croatia: Will Nicolas Ciamin play spoilsport again?

Performing well last year, Nicolas Ciamin hopes to once again be able to play the leading roles with his Hyundai i20 (Photo: Nikos Katikis)

This had been one of the striking images of the previous edition. After sending his Volkswagen onto the roof, Nicolas traveled several meters sliding in this manner on the road to the special before ending his race in a loophole.

« It's a test that I appreciate, says Ciamin who is preparing to take part in his 3^e rally from Croatia. I like it because it's a sleeve with a lot of ropes and therefore a lot of pollution. In terms of grip, I think it is the weakest in the championship and there is no variation like in Monte-Carlo. It's a very complicated rally, but the stages are beautiful. »

Author of two 4^e places since the start of the season, the Niçois hopes to once again be able to do well. To do this, he is counting on the changes received by his mount. “ It's a meeting that should suit the Hyundai, he projects. The i20 normally works well in this type of situation and we won't need the versatility. We have the engine upgrade which apparently brings a big benefit and we have a brand new chassis. We also carried out work on the suspensions which we carried out with PKM. After a Monte-Carlo where the car didn't have enough performance and a Kenya where it was me who lacked it, we really want to aim higher. We went to a rally in Italy this weekend to prepare. The grip level was nothing like what's here, but it was still informative. » Among the other objectives that will occupy the minds of the Tricolore crew in Croatia, there will be the desire to position themselves in front of the i20 Rally2 of Emil Lindholm which receives help from Hyundai. For this, the driver of the 2C Competition team hopes to be able to rely on his good starting order, since he will start 3^e of WRC2.

« During the shakedown we continued to work on the settings and we started to find something interesting, explained the southerner the day before the race. I now have to concentrate on tire strategy. My driving is not aggressive and I hesitate in my choices. » This dilemma will perhaps arise for Friday's stage which includes 8 SS and 119,4 km timed. If the forecast turns out to be accurate and if rain arrives, there will be a lot of questions for Saturday.