After 1361.75 kilometres – or 846 miles for those who prefer their measurements in imperial – young Englishman Harry Hunt has got to the end of the world-famous Monte Carlo Rally: the oldest and most famous rally of them all. The 22-year-old has enjoyed what was definitely the full Monte, and he didn’t even have to take any clothes off (unlike the stars in the film of the same name).
It was a weekend of firsts for Harry: the first time in his new Citroen DS3 R3 rally car, the first event of his season, and the first rally with Gareth Roberts in the co-drivers’ seat, while his regular partner Seb Marshall recovers from a broken pelvis. The experience may have been all new to Harry, but the same didn’t apply to the Monte Carlo Rally itself, which celebrated its 100th birthday this year.
Monte Carlo is well-known for its twisty mountain roads and changeable weather conditions, with snow and ice as frequent a sight as the spectular Ferraris and Lamborghinis outside the casino. Many drivers say that Monte Carlo is the most complex event of the year, thanks to stages that can start off in bright sunshine but end up in a snowstorm.
So the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge was hardly the ideal place to learn a brand new car but Harry only had one goal: to get the bright green DS3 R3 to the finish. More than half the 120-strong field failed to achieve this, but for Harry it was mission accomplished: after three long days he ended up 43rd overall and 20th in the highly-competitive two-wheel drive class.
“I’m really pleased,” said the London-based Englishman, the winner of the coveted FIA Rookie of the Year title in 2010. “We got to the end, which was our primary goal, but even more importantly we learned so much for the future. Our learning curve has been so steep that it’s practically vertical. After the first day we more than doubled our mileage in the car up to that point and from there it got better and better. We did have one or two teething troubles, but that’s part of the process of learning a new car, which applies to the team as much as to me. I just can’t believe how quick this car is: everything seems to come at you before you know it! Thanks to some great pace notes from Gareth, who did a magnificent job, and the usual hard work from our team we got through everything without any massive dramas. Now we’re really looking forward to the rest of the year.”
Harry’s new turbocharged Citroen DS3 R3 puts out more than 200 horsepower, a step up of around 50 horsepower compared to his car last year. Harry had a baptism of fire on the first stage of the Monte Carlo Rally on Wednesday when he was distracted after catching a slower car, which caused him to go off the road. He was stuck for about seven minutes – and the only way out was down a vertical slope to the road below…
“It was mad!” said Harry. “We had a load of spectators hanging onto the back to make sure that we didn’t go end over end. I was trying to steer the car off the slope and it was like looking down a well! So then we knew we needed to take extra care to get to the finish.”
After this initial setback, Harry kept his nose clean, just as he had promised, and the I-Cars Citroen DS3 R3 began to move up the order, setting times that were on average around a second per kilometre slower than the leading two-wheel drive runner. This was despite the fact that Harry was deliberately not making many changes to the set-up, in order to learn the Citroen more thoroughly. He also encountered one or two brake problems, which were easily fixed.
On Thursday afternoon, snow fell heavily and made conditions almost impossible: one or two competitors even fell off on the road section to the special stages. These typical Monte Carlo conditions provided the turning point of the entire rally. Studded tyres, which bite through the ice and snow to find grip, were the only thing to have but unfortunately Harry had only fitted non-studded rain tyres. They were far from the perfect choice, but in the service park several kilometres away, it’s very hard to guess what the weather might be doing in the mountains many hours later.
Harry stuck to a sensible pace in the tricky conditions, ensuring that he would be among the top 60 crews authorised to start the final night that forms the climax of the event: two runs over the famed Col de Turini stages in the mountains above Monaco.
The loop of four stages did not bring the cars back to the finish in Monaco until the early hours of Saturday morning but the route was still packed with thousands of excited spectators, not to mention the millions more watching the action live on Eurosport: Europe’s largest television channel.
After a successful debut, Harry now has an eight-week gap until he contests his next event: the all-gravel Rally Portugal, which forms part of the World Rally Championship from March 25-27. He’s planning to do a bit of testing in the meantime, as he keeps climbing that near-vertical learning curve…
People at home can keep up with Harry’s exploits through his regularly-updated Twitter feed (twitter.com/HarryHunt), his Facebook page, and live television programmes from Eurosport. For more on the Monte Carlo Rally please visit www.rally-irc.com.
– Credit: Harry Hunt Motorsport/Mediatica.