Fourmaux: Maiden WRC podium is proof to “never give up” on dreams

Fourmaux delivered the best result of his WRC career to date to finish a milestone third, 47.9 seconds behind eventual Rally Sweden winner Esapekka Lappi of Hyundai.

The M-Sport Ford driver successfully navigated incredibly challenging conditions that caught out world champions Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak to end Saturday in second position, behind Lappi and in front of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, to pocket 15 points under the new scoring system.

The run to second at the end of Saturday included a fourth career fastest time on stage 11. The only scare arrived on stage 15 when he had an encounter with a snowbank.

The 28-year-old Frenchman opted not to get drawn into a fight with Evans and subsequently dropped to third at the finish.

The result has lifted him to third in the championship with 29 points having scored 16 more points in two rounds this year than he achieved throughout a difficult maiden full-time Rally1 campaign in 2022.

Fourmaux was recalled to M-Sport’s Rally1 line-up for this season after being dropped to its Rally2 programme last year.

“It is really great. It is only my fourth rally on snow so you can imagine I can be really proud of it,” Fourmaux told Motorsport.com.

“It is my first ever podium at the top level in the second rally of my Rally1 comeback so I am really pleased about it. We are third in the championship, it is crazy.

Podium: Winner Esapekka Lappi, Janne Ferm, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1, second place Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, third place Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1

Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

“There is still a long way to go but for sure I am really pleased as we had many conditions with the snow, and sometimes we didn’t have a good road position, and to get to the podium after all that is fantastic.

“To be fair my target was P5 coming here and if I could finish there I would be happy, but to get to P2 on Saturday and then finish third it was great.

“It shows that if you never give up you can maybe get it [a podium] one day. If you believe in a dream, you just have to follow it and ignore people saying you cannot achieve it.”

Fourmaux says he won’t get carried away by the achievement and alter his mindset moving forward.

“I’m quite a calm person normally so I don’t want to feel like everything is okay and we are now going to get many podiums. It is one in the pocket, but I need to build up for the next rallies.”