South African rally driver Max Smart, partnered by co-driver Alejandro López, secured a third-place finish at Rally Terra de Galicia, a round of the Campeonato de España de Rallyes de Tierra (CERT) Rallycar championship, delivering a podium result on his first competitive outing in the Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Smart arrived in Galicia off the back of a rally win in León, switching into the unfamiliar Fiesta Rally2 for this event. The weekend was billed from the outset as a learning exercise: a new car, new characteristics, and a strong field of established Rally2 machinery to measure against. Smart used the opening stages to build his understanding of the Fiesta, climbing steadily through the order to move into the top five.
The result did not come easily. Smart broke into the top five in the opening stages and moved up to fourth overall by the midpoint of the rally — a position he then held for four consecutive stages, always in touch with the podium but unable to close the gap. As he continued to find his feet in the unfamiliar Fiesta, Smart and López pushed hard through the closing stages, posting the second-fastest time on both of the rally’s final two runs to move into third place on the very last stage and secure the result at the finish.
“It was a big learning weekend adjusting to the Fiesta in the beginning,” said Smart. “I had to work a lot on the set-up to make the car feel comfortable enough for me to push, and once we got that right, and had more kilometres behind the wheel of this new machine, we were able to start finding the potential of the car. It felt amazing.”
The result caps a strong run of form this season — a third in Pozoblanco, a win in León, and now a third in Galicia — moving Smart into a strong championship fighting position heading into the final two rounds in October.
MSA Publishes media releases from a host of different sources on our website as a service to the sport. It is not practically possible to vet/approve every release that is published. Some news items and articles are written by correspondents and do not necessarily represent MSA’s views.