Tom Williams continued his excellent start to the 2019 FIA Junior World Rally Championship by finishing fifth on the Tour of Corsica in his M-Sport developed Ford Fiesta R2.
Having finished fourth last time out in Sweden, the result puts the talented 20-year old Oxfordshire driver sixth (out of 13) in the JWRC points table – with the snow and asphalt rallies he has the least experience on completed, ahead of three events on his favourite gravel surface to come.
Whilst aiming for a clean run in Corsica, Tom also set a fast and consistent pace throughout the 347.51km event – setting two fourth fastest stage times (on SS9, the longest 47.18km Castagniccia test, and on the final SS14).
Tom and co-driver Phil Hall (Nottingham) made an excellent start, recording a faultless performance on day one – which was essential, as the six wide, fast and bumpy stages to the south of the island near Porto-Vecchio were completed without service, so one small mishap could have proved costly. Having been as high as fourth after SS5, Tom finished the first day in fifth, despite boiling the brake fluid during the afternoon’s higher temperatures and having to be extra careful braking for the tighter corners.
A near midnight finish on Friday was followed by a dawn start on Saturday, as the longest leg of the event got underway with two loops of three very long stages in the north of the island, nearer to the event’s base in Bastia. There was drama on the opening stage as Tom drifted a little wide on a right hand corner, ran over some sharp stones on the grass verge and collected a front left puncture. He stopped to replace it and continued with a slow rear puncture – with the double puncture episode dropping him from fifth to eighth in JWRC. However, a fantastic run through the next stage saw Tom set another fifth fastest time to jump straight back up to sixth.
The event’s longest 47.18km Castagniccia stage followed, during which Tom saw several cars buried in the undergrowth and came across one car partially blocking the road. The combination of pushing hard, driving clean and managing his brakes and tyres worked well, as Tom not only survived the carnage but set the fourth fastest JWRC time, moving him back up to fifth as he entered mid-day service.
Tom only did two of the three stages in the afternoon, as the repeat run of Castagniccia was unfortunately cancelled after another competitor’s car caught fire and blocked the stage. Yet two sixth fastest times cemented his fifth position at the final overnight halt.
Sunday contained two very tricky stages, which once again required some set-up changes to his Fiesta R2 and a clever strategy of driving on a combination of used and new tyres. It was a day when a small mistake near the finish could ruin a great performance, but Tom kept his concentration, drove superbly well – even when the car’s set-up wasn’t quite suited to the bumpy conditions – to reach the finish in Calvi to score an excellent fifth place finish in JWRC.
Tom said: “I’m really happy to finish fifth on the Tour of Corsica, because it’s such a big event and there is so much to learn. Friday’s stages were all new for us and the roads were wide, very fast and bumpy; quite different from the Shakedown stage we’d done the previous day, so our set-up wasn’t quite right. We were on the pace, but it was a very tricky day – plus, with no service during the day, we had to be really careful not to make a mistake and to manage our tyres wisely. We had a clean day, everything went to plan, and we finished it in fifth position in what’s an extremely competitive Junior World Rally Championship category this year.
“Saturday contained stages that were a little more familiar to us as they were similar to last year, and we worked hard to make sure the car was set-up well for these roads. I really enjoy driving these stages, but unfortunately we picked up a double puncture on the opening stage of the day. It was on pretty much the same section of road where we picked up a puncture last year, which was a bit frustrating. We had to change the wheel in the stage, lost two minutes and dropped to eighth. I was annoyed, but we had to forget about it and carry on pushing – especially on the longest forty-seven kilometre Castagniccia test, which is my favourite of the rally. We had a good clean run through there and came out of it back in fifth place.
“We didn’t do the Castagniccia stage in the afternoon because of a fire, but still Saturday had been a long day and for the first time I felt that my fitness training and diet programmes had really helped me. And we still had two stages remaining on Sunday, the first one of which was long and nothing like any of the stages that had gone before. It was very bumpy and the car, with a much too stiffer set-up, was quite difficult to drive. But we got through it, softened the car up for the final stage, and finished the event with fourth fastest time to secure fifth and more JWRC points.
“I’m leaving Corsica a lot more confident about driving on asphalt now. It’s been such a long and tough rally, we’ve made so may set-up changes and driven on so many different types of road, when the set-up was right and when it was wrong! To get so many asphalt miles at World Championship level under my belt has been a fantastic experience, and to come away with such a good result is the icing on the cake.”
The next round of the 2019 FIA Junior WRC Championship is Rally Italy in Sardinia (13-16 June).