Diogo Gago and Jorge Carvalho got this Saturday a 4th place among Juniors in the Circuit of Ireland Rally, the second race of the European Junior Rally Championship.
After the seventh time in Thursday's Qualifying Stage, the Portuguese duo from Peugeot Rally Academy knew that the treacherous Northern Ireland specials presented themselves as a major challenge, with the first day of competition presenting the sections with lots of water and mud .
Diogo Gago and Jorge Carvalho were then getting used to the difficult Irish specials, so that in the Friday afternoon section the specials were dry. The Portuguese duo completed the first day of competition in sixth position, starting their debut in Ireland in the best possible way.
On the second day of competition, ten more special qualifying events were reserved, on a day when the sun was already present, allowing the specials to be completely dry.
The Peugeot Rally Academy duo continued to climb in the overall rankings, finishing in fourth place, adding a victory in specials and a third time on the last day of competition, closing in the best way an important 'examination' such as the Circuit of Ireland Rally.
After the end of the race, the young Portuguese man and Peugeot Rally Academy driver said that “in view of the demand of this rally and for the first contact with these sections, the result I consider to be very positive. This is a rally where knowledge of the terrain characteristics is essential and this is not possible to achieve with two days of competition. As such, it was important to gain a special rhythm in the special, improving our times a lot in the second specials and in this way go up in the general and thus demonstrate our evolution throughout the rally. As had already happened at Liepaja, this was another completely new race for us and in an extremely competitive environment, so it is very important to be in these challenges with a team like Peugeot Rally Academy”.
Diogo Gago and Jorge Carvalho thus completed the Circuit of Ireland in 19th place overall and 4th among Juniors.
The result was only confirmed at the time of publication of the official classification, after an error by the organization made the Portuguese duo disappear of times online from the tenth special qualifying test.
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