The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, says that his team hopes to sell more non-hybrid Puma Rally1 cars to customers after Martins Sesks's success in Poland as the performance of this car has been proved to be between a Rally1 car and a Rally2 car.
Martins Sesks made his WRC debut at Rally Poland two weeks ago where he finished in fifth place overall. Everyone was impressed by his performance as he managed to set the second-fastest time in Stage 2 and to be 7,4 seconds behind the rally leader Andreas Mikkelsen at the end of Friday morning. In addition to these, he was able to keep the current championship leader, Thierry Neuville, behind for only one tenth of a second at the end of Saturday which means that the last one lost valuable points for his WRC title bid as he was sixth before the start of the final day of Rally Poland. Sesks proved that the performance of a non-hybrid Rally1 car is between a Rally1 car and a Rally2 car while the two main differences between a regular Rally1 car and a non-hybrid Rally1 car are the launch at the start of a stage and the horsepower as the hybrid unit gives an extra power in some sections of a stage thanks to braking recovery. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that the removal of the hybrid unit means that the non-hybrid cars weigh less than the regular Rally1 cars, but FIA's regulations mention that all the cars running at the top level must have the same weight which means that Sesks's Puma had the same weight as the hybrid Rally1 cars.
"I hope we can sell some more cars", Millener said.
"That was also part of the goal to showcase it and show that you can still come here and have fun and be in amongst the top guys and more importantly a long way ahead of Rally2.
"We wanted to prove it can do that and still be competitive and it can give this opportunity to youngsters to come and prove what they can do.
"People were saying if you just remove the hybrid, it is a Rally2 car but if you had watched Martins in a Rally2 car he would never have had the same feeling or feedback.
"These Rally1 cars are amazing to watch and that is why I always say that we can’t get rid of them.
"We must have a top category in WRC and something like this to showcase what this is about".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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