For Pärn the main rival was Briton Tom Cave who was third behind him, the gap between them was 22,4 seconds. The leader Quentin Gilbert had an advantage of three and a half minute. But for him the drama started even before the first stage as he was involved in a traffic accident on the road section and had to retire.
„The beginning of the day was quite odd. We left the service holding the second place but as we started to the stage we were already class winners,” told Pärn.
In the first stage Tom Cave was enough faster than Pärn to become the new leader of Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy with advantage of 0,4 seconds. Pärn climbed back to the top of the leaderboard in the next stage and the gap between him and Cave before the last stage was 10,8 seconds. In the last stage Pärn showed excellent pace and having Cave once again behind him, Sander Pärn and James Morgan secured their first victory of Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy. Cave was second losing them 20,8 seconds.
„I was too slow and cautious in the first stage. Pacenotes weren’t the perfect ones and moving to the lead was something that interrupted my concentration. Then we had a chat with my good friend and tutor from earlier years Kuldar Sikk who was in Rally Portugal co-driver to Oleksii Kikireshko. They started two cars ahead of us and before last two stages he gave me good advice and enthused me to fight back. I can say this conversation really worked for us as we managed to pass Tom and then win the rally in Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy scoring. We are very happy with the maximum points we got from Rally Portugal. From this it is good to move on to next rounds in Poland and Finland where we must be faster then here. The tactics we choosed for Portugal were right, especially when looking to the results. I’m also very happy about James, it is his first WRC event and our cooperation was perfect. I thank James for that! And also M-Sport for preparing a perfect Ford Fiesta R2 to us and DMACK tires,” reviewed Pärn last day in Rally Portugal.
Sander Pärn and James Morgan are now leaders of Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy and the next round is Rally Poland held in the end of June.
