WRC privateer Martin Prokop has revealed he endured a nerve-wracking drive to fourth-place at last week’s XION Rally Argentina.
The Jipocar Czech National Team driver equaled his best-ever WRC finish by guiding his Ford Fiesta RS WRC to a finishing position that was just under three minutes behind the Fiesta of M-Sport driver Elfyn Evans.
But it was only after Prokop and co-driver Jan Tománek had reached the end of the final stage in Argentina that he spoke about the pressure of getting the car – nicknamed ‘Fiona’ – to the finish in one piece.
“This was the last race for this Fiona as it’s a car that was sold before I got to Argentina,” Prokop told wrc.com. “It was not very nice to drive this rally in that situation because the car is sold and I need to get the money for it!”
Prokop’s strong result in Argentina owed much to his consistent approach on some of the roughest stages that the WRC crews are likely to tackle this season.
He said: “We saw on the shakedown that we were not as competitive as we were in Mexico so we decided to change our strategy to get to the the finish over the rough stages.
“It proved to be a good strategy for us because it was a case of being consistent when we weren’t able to show our best speed. I tried to stay further back and to avoid taking any risks.”