Hyundai Junior Development driver Grégoire Munster will compete on next weekend’s Rally di Roma Capitale to help gain experience of a Rally2 spec Hyundai i20.
Muster, who finished fifth in the ERC3 Junior class on the event last year, has only competed in one event so far this season in the Hyundai due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“We already have experience with the R5 cars, but it’s only our second rally with the Hyundai and we still have to drive some kilometres to get some experience with the car, that will be the biggest challenge,” said the youngster ahead of next weekend.
“In general Rome was not a bad experience for us last season so we thought to get some experience there would be a great idea with the Hyundai.”
The Hyundai young driver scheme has been extended to rallying for this season after success in the Hyundai TCR programmes and in 2020 include WRC2 regulars Ole Christian Veiby and Nikolay Gryazin and one of Munster’s rivals in Italy next week, former Junior BRC winner Callum Devine.
The Belgian went on to admit that the programme has already helped him with his development despite the disrupted first half of 2020 and he added: “It’s a great opportunity to get the support from Hyundai, get their feedback and support from engineers to make sure the learning curve goes even quicker.”
“We have only driven the Hyundai in Belgium where the grip level is quite low compared to other rallies and countries. We were not perfect with the set-up but we are still in this learning phase. There was a lot of potential in the car. We are really eager to find out what the maximum is and how to use it fully.”
Rally di Rome, the largest rally since the COIVD-19 pandemic, takes place next weekend and The Checkered Flag will have coverage from every day of action.
