Albatec Heads To France For Maiden Pont De Ruan Outing
Dumfries, Scotland (UK) — Monday 6 July 2015; Albatec Racing continues its busy schedule as it travels to France this week to contest round six of the French Rallycross Championship at Pont de Ruan (11&12 July). The Dumfries team’s pair of 600bhp Peugeot 208 RX Supercars have been re-prepped following their respective Mondello Park British RX and Goodwood Festival of Speed outings, ready for Julien Fébreau and Kristian Sohlberg to go up against the cream of French rallycrossers.
For Canal+ F1 TV presenter Julien, the event marks a return to the car in which he starred in Faleyras recently, with rapid lap times in the final, and narrowly missing a podium finish on his first competitive outing with Andy Scott’s team. With an already impressive record in rallycross, including a podium in RX Lites in Canada and victory in Pont de Ruan last season, the Frenchman recently returned from Silverstone’s British Grand Prix, will be keen to put his F1 test experience to good use, and reach the top spot once again.
The race marks the long-awaited rallycross debut of rally driver Kristian, the former Mitsubishi works driver returning to a race track for the first time in ten years. More used to the rally stages than the rallycross tracks, the Flying Finn enters his first ever RX event, and without the benefit of track knowledge. However a pre-race test should ease the 37 year–old into the two-litre 16v, four-wheel-drive Supercar, which accelerates faster than Lewis Hamilton’s race-winning Mercedes F1, as he looks to impress in his bid for a full-time seat in 2016.
For Albatec Racing, the race marks only its second outing in the French RX series. The current leaders of Euro RX, following Jerome Grosset-Janin’s first and second places in the opening two rounds, is dovetailing a campaign in British RX, together with select outings in the French and World RX series. Early leaders of the British series thanks to back-to-back wins and second place from Team Principal Andy, hopes are high of a return to the top step of the podium on Sunday.
Kristian Sohlberg :
“I’m very excited about this new challenge. I have no previous experience of a rallycross car, but I’m very quick to adapt and learn new things so I’m confident I’ll learn to handle the phenomenal acceleration of a Supercar. One of the biggest challenges will be to race with other cars on the track on the same time. I have done some circuit racing with endurance cars 10 years ago, but it’s still something very new to me.
“I’m looking forward to getting in the car in testing and start to learn and work with the team, and I’ll try to maximise my time in the car. I hope that my experience in rally development work will also benefit the team and allow me to give good feedback to the engineers, so that we can further improve the car.
“I don’t know the circuit at all, but I have watched some in-car videos, it looks good with some challenging places and I will try to prepare as best I can. My personal goal is to show my speed and skills in these few races with Albatec and earn a seat for 2016. There is a lot to learn but I have full confidence that with the team’s help and support it will be great.”
Julien Fébreau :
“I’m really looking forward to getting back on track at Pont de Ruan! I had a fantastic weekend in Faleyras with all the Albatec Racing team and I really want to live those emotions again. Now I know more about the team and the Peugeot 208 RX, I should have even more pleasure and fun!
“I will approach this weekend in the same manner as Faleyras, with the desire to do things well; quietly and cleanly. It will be only my third race driving a Supercar so I have still many steps to climb, but our performance in Faleyras, including my lap times in the final, make me think I’m going in the right direction. I found myself close to the podium there, a month ago, so you can imagine what my goal will be this weekend!
“I am very happy to drive alongside Kristian, he is a top racing driver who has a lot of experience of rallying and Supercars. It is a chance for me because I’ll try to learn as much as I can, by watching him and listening to his comments. As I said Faleyras was a great opportunity for me to work with a great team like Albatec Racing, because it is with professional people such as Andy and all the members of the team that I can improve myself as a racing driver.
“Pont de Ruan is very different to Faleyras. It is a track with low/medium speed corners that require you to keep a constant pace from the beginning to the end of the lap. You have to be very quiet on board the car and not over drive. Obviously I have a great memory of this circuit, since I won my first race in Supercar here last year. It is an extraordinary memory and it is to live great moments such as these, that I race in Rallycross!”
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