ERC Junior Furuseth: Azores result felt like win

Furuseth was fast but frequently out of luck during his maiden ERC Junior campaign last season. But his first event in a Saintéloc Junior Team Peugeot 208 R2 – and his first appearance on the spectacular gravel rally in the mid-Atlantic – netted a strong second place behind Efrén Llarena alongside co-driver Jim Hjerpe.

“This second place feels like a victory after all the problems we had last year,” Furuseth said at the finish in Ponta Delgada on Saturday evening. “It’s been an amazing rally and I’m really happy to be second behind Efrén Llarena. Well done to him because he did a very good rally.

“But I’m very happy with my performance despite not knowing what to really expect from the Azores. It was difficult to find the speed without making mistakes so I was trying to find the feeling, trying to find the rhythm. We struggled a bit with tyre wear but I think that was because maybe I was too fast on the Tarmac sections.”

There was one major moment of anguish for Norwegian Furuseth, as he explained: “Approximately one third into the final stage there were some really high rattling noises in the car, we talked about it and what could this be and concluded it had to be the engine mount. We managed to save the car. I felt I had lost second place and maybe I would be third. But Elias Lundberg was driving very safely so luckily we kept second place.”

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