Breen and Campedelli ready for ERC challenge for Team MRF Tyres

Mikolajki (Poland), 18 June 2021: Team MRF Tyres is in Mikolajki for the opening round of the 2021 FIA European Rally Championship that will be held from 18-20 June.

Two cars will fly the Team MRF Tyres colours with Irish ace Craig Breen being joined by Paul Nagle in a Hyundai i20 Rally2 and Italian Simone Campedelli joined by Tania Canton in a Volkswagen Polo R5.

The crews will face fast and narrow gravel roads for this special version of Rally Poland. This year marks the 100^th anniversary of the first time the event was held, with six cars starting the original test in 1921.

Fast forward 100 years and the event offers a hugely competitive field with more than 40 Rally2 cars competing for the outright win.

There are 14 special stages that wait for the drivers, offering 202.76km of competitive action.

The first stage gets underway on Friday night, with a short 2.5km blast through the Mikołajki Arena. The bulk of the rally takes place on Saturday with 133.12km of action across seven stages.

The first look sees the 18.20km of Świętajno, 17.16km of Olecko and 28.70km of Wieliczki. This loop is repeated again in the afternoon but with the Mikołajki Arena ending the day. With such long stages between services, the drivers will have to balance speed with maintaining their car.

Sunday’s action gets underway early with 07:25 Mikołajki MAX stage of 9.34km getting underway at 7:50am. It is followed by the 15.55km gm. Mrągowo stage before the crews head back to service.

The afternoon loop sees these stages repeated before the crews take the long drive to Warsaw. On the way they will complete a 17.9km stage of Przasnysz before the rally takes a special ending.

For the 100^th anniversary, a 1.96km stage will take place in Warsaw before the ceremonial finish is held in the Polish capital.

MRF Tyres will also be represented with eight crews from the Polish Championship who will be rallying in the national section of the rally..

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this rally will be held behind closed doors. For those following at home, the FIA ERC will free live radio of all the stages which can be found on their website at www.fiaerc.com and will live stream selected stages on their Facebook page.

You can follow Team MRF Tyres throughout the rally on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Quotes
Craig Breen, Hyundai i20 Rally2
“It has been a while since the European Rally Championship competed on gravel and I am looking forward to driving the MRF Tyres on gravel again.”

“This rally will be very fast and the road conditions in some places will be quite rutted. We had a successful test day, where we were able to see how the car performed in the ruts and on a good surface. It will make for an exciting rally!”

Simone Campedelli, VW Polo R5
“I am excited to be starting in the ERC with MRF Tyres. I have been in the Italian Championship for many years but coming to Rally Poland, I will have to learn the roads. I am looking forward to the challenge.”

“Team MRF Tyres have done a great job in developing the tyres and I am looking forward to continuing the development work with them. The aim is to get more tyre data so stage miles are important. Though I am looking forward to pushing on these fast Polish roads!”