Promising points at FIA WRX round 4 for UNKORRUPTED 30.08.2020: A rainy morning greeted UNKORRUPTED for Rd 4 of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship and the 2nd race day of this weekend’s double-header, creating extremely slippery and quickly changing conditions throughout the day. For team UNKORRUPTED, it was a

A rainy morning greeted UNKORRUPTED for Rd 4 of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship and the 2nd race day of this weekend’s double-header, creating extremely slippery and quickly changing conditions throughout the day. For team UNKORRUPTED, it was another opportunity to test the newly changed setup of the GCK Clio R.S. RX to improve the cars’ traction.
 


In Q1, UNKORRUPTED driver Guerlain Chicherit managed to power through into p3 following a struggle at the start but came out behind Timerzyanov after jokering to finish in 4th.



Teammate Kevin Abbring, who today raced on an entirely different setup to Chicherit for the team to gather data and feedback quicker, was struggling with his car’s grip on the devolving track and finished in 5th.
 


Q2 saw both UNKORRUPTED cars on the grid together, with Abbring sending it around the outside to take the lead before a battle with Doran and subsequent contact with Timurzyanov saw him finish in 3rd while Chicherit’s setup had him finish in 4th. Having seen the considerable jump in performance in Kevin’s car which pushed him up by 3 positions in the Championship’s qualifier standing, Guerlain’s setup was aligned to be the same going into Q3.
 


The heavens opened again just ahead of Q3 resulting in an evolving but then devolving track in between Q3 races, as additional rain first cleared the track creating better grip on wet tires, followed by the dragged across mud creating an even slippier surface.
 


Abbring and Chicherit, now on the same setup, finished their races in 5th and 4th respectively putting down some promising pace through the different sections with the 12th and 13th fastest time of the qualifier, which dropped them just out of semi-final reach with Chicherit in 15th and Abbring ending the race day in 13th missing just 2 points to the semis.






GUERLAIN CHICHERIT



“We saw some progress today in lap times, both on dry and wet and while this is promising, we still have a long way to go. The last few weekends have been an uphill climb for us and we’re just trying to find out as much as possible in the short time that we have to make changes.



It’s been hard for the team, the mechanics, engineers and us drivers, especially as the car has not been reacting consistently and very differently to what we achieved in tests throughout the winter. We now have a few weeks ahead of the next round and we’ll definitely make use of those!”, Chicherit commented
    





KEVIN ABBRING



“We’ve done so many things since Sweden and sometimes it’s hard to know what works and what doesn’t but I think in the end, we’re a step closer to what it is that the car is lacking. If you look at Q2, the car gave me a lot of confidence, a really good start and a nice send into turn 1, so that’s positive.


In Q3 in the rain, we didn’t quite hit the right pace on the tarmac but on the gravel, I was one of the strongest in the sector. The overall results may not seem like that yet but we’re getting there.”, Abbring commented

GCK - also photos