Éric Camilli is keen to end his début FIA World Rally Championship season with M-Sport on a high with a good result at the 2016 Dayinsure Wales Rally GB.
The young Frenchman has only contested the Welsh fixture only once before on last year’s event.
On his Wales Rally GB debut, he dominated WRC2, but lost a well-deserved victory, due to a turbo issue on the final stage.
In order to further his loose-surface progression, Camilli’s target is a clean rally. But, if the opportunity arises, the Frenchman will be keen to show his increasing gravel pace.
Despite his little experience with the event, Wales has already made a very favourable impression on Camilli.
“Wales Rally GB is a really special event for me, and it will be even more special this year as it’s the home rally for my team.
“They have been so supportive this season, and it would mean a lot to repay them with a good result next week.
“We’ve only competed in Wales once before – in WRC2 – but we were competitive from the start and came really close to the win.”
Camilli mentioned his main objective at Wales Rally GB is to finish the rally.
“This year will be completely different, but I’m looking forward to it and to building on our gravel performances from earlier in the year.
“The stages are really fast and flowing and even in the wet the grip levels can be surprisingly high. We’ll need to take some time to discover how a world rally car handles and reacts to the conditions, but we always want to do our maximum.
“The most important thing is to finish the event, but if the feeling is there, it will be nice to push the limits and see how far we’ve come.”
M-Sport Team Principal Malcolm Wilson OBE is confident that Camilli will be able to put in a strong performance.
“Éric might have only contested this event once before, but its specialist nature didn’t seem to faze him and he got to grips with the stages surprisingly quickly.
“This year will be a completely different challenge. The aim will be to deliver another clean rally, but I know he’ll also want to post some strong times if the feeling is right.”
