Pierre Campana has ended this week’s gruelling Rallye Monte Carlo this morning in a fine seventh place overall after impressing the MINI WRC team with his sensible approach and speed in just his third World Rally Championship event.
Concluding the five days of action with the exhilarating power stage, Rallye Monte Carlo has lived up to its reputation for producing varied and unpredictable driving conditions with participants facing a mix of snow, ice, rain and dry during the week.
For a driver like Pierre, in his WRC infancy, simply bringing the car to the conclusion of the rally without incident is impressive enough but to score points for a manufacturer team in the process is something to be commended.
Pierre had hoped to end the event with a competitive performance in the power stage but power steering problems prevented him from capitalising on the momentum he had built up during the week. Among some of Pierre’s highlights this week were an impressive third place in SS12, sixth place in the legendary Col du Turini stages and fourth place in last night’s SS17.
The results were enough to impress Prodrive boss David Richards, who said: “Pierre has certainly impressed me and the MINI WRC team with his sensible approach and speed in this difficult rally in what is just his third WRC event. As a young driver, it is not easy to come into a manufacturer team and be quick and consistent throughout the event, but that is exactly what Pierre has achieved. The fact he has scored valuable points for MINI in the first WRC event of the year is very much to his credit.”
Pierre Campana added: “It has been a fantastic Monte Carlo rally and I take away a lot of valuable experience thanks to the MINI WRC team. The MINI John Cooper Works WRC car has been a joy to drive. After a cautious start to the event, I have built up a lot of momentum and confidence in the last few days, as shown by the performances in SS12 and yesterday’s stages. We had a power steering problem in this morning’s power stage but it made no difference to the overall result and I am proud to have scored points in my first WRC event with a manufacturer team. This has been just my third WRC event and, overall, I’m pleased with my performances. I cannot thank MINI enough for this opportunity and hope that I have the chance to return to the WRC stage as soon as possible.”