Jon Williams Rally Spain Round-Up

spain williams action Jon Williams Rally Spain Round Up

WILLIAMS IMPRESSES AGAIN

Three days of sunshine and asphalt roads played out the final round of the inaugural Pirelli Star Driver campaign at the WRC Rally Spain. The only asphalt event for the Pirelli Star Drivers, South Africa’s Jon Williams proved to be a WRC star for the future, WRITES EVAN ROTHMAN.

It was Jarkko Nikara who finished as the leading Pirelli Star Driver. The Finnish driver never put wheel wrong all weekend, and drove to a mature 17th position overall finish (and fourth in Group N) in his Pirelli-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Jon Williams gave rally bosses and teams more to consider as he performed consistently well in his first all-asphalt rally.

Jon was unfussed by the pressures and expectations, and this approach allowed him to post stage times that were close to the fastest in the Group N category. Unfortunately for the young Capetonian, his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X suffered a broken gearbox only three kilometres from the end of the final stage on Day Two, while running in second place of the Star Drivers and sixth in Group N.

His team mechanics changed the gearbox on Saturday evening, and he was allowed to restart the rally on Day Three under SupeRally regulations. In trying to make up lost time, Jon slipped off the road on the first stage of the final loop on Sunday afternoon, dropping 14 minutes. He ended the rally 17th in Group N.

“There was so much to learn on this event,” said Jon Williams. “We were looking after the brakes early on and working out how much we could lean on them, then we had to learn about the grip levels. It’s completely alien to me, but I started to understand where the grip was on the road and how to get the best out of the car.

Early on in the event we were two seconds per kilometre down on the front of Group N, but we halved that and then carried on working on reducing the gap. The set-up of the car is so important, we worked out that running the rear of the car stiffer was the best way, but these were all things we were doing for the first time on asphalt.

“Unfortunately, some of the other cars had some engine trouble, so the team turned our engine down a little bit to put less stress on it. That meant we couldn’t really push out of the slower corners, there wasn’t so much boost. We had a problem on stage 16 when I slid wide in a corner and the front of the car came to rest on a rock. George [Gwynn] and I couldn’t get the car off ourselves and we lost time getting out of the stage. The only damage to the Lancer was the front bodywork, there were no mechanical problems. I lost a little bit more time in the next stage while I made sure everything was fi ne and straight on the car. That was a shame, not the best way to end the event. For my first event on asphalt, I was happy with the pace we were ultimately achieving.”

Online version of Handbrakes & Hairpins: http://issuu.com/hhmag/docs/h_h-102