ALEXEY LUKYANUK (ERC1 winner)
“It’s good points for the championship and of course winning in Rome is something special. It’s a unique race with very hard competition. It was a long rally, very tough and very hot. It took a lot of effort to achieve the result and I’m delighted for the performance and happy for the team. I thank our sponsors for their support in this hard situation. You never expect to be the winner and when it comes it’s a special feeling. It was a controlled drive, quite calculated with reasonable pace. To be honest the local guys were quite competitive today and their pace was good. It was maybe not so easy to catch their speed but we didn’t really need to do that. It’s just a fantastic result for us and it’s very pleasant to see we didn’t lose our feeling and our performance during this lockdown. But without my new co-driver [Dmitry Eremeev] this result would not have been possible.”

OLIVER SOLBERG (ERC1 Junior winner)
“It was fantastic. A lot to learn when I came into the weekend for sure but, all of a sudden, the pace went quite well. I thought I was going to lose a lot of time but I built my pace up more and more and came quite close to the guys in the end. It was good fun to be able to fight on the stages and for the first time on Tarmac it was fantastic. I got a bit sore in my eyes after this long day without my glasses, I need them for the next time so my eyes don’t dry out but it was okay. I feel I’ve broken the code to learn how to drive on Tarmac, to know the technique and how to drive. Okay, there’s much more to learn, such as the commitment in the fast stuff, the late braking and taking risk but this weekend was not about taking risk but having fun and enjoy and drive. I won Rally Liepāja last year first time out so hopefully I can fight for the win this year as well.”

ZELINDO MELEGARI (ERC2 winner)
“I am very happy for this result after one year away from rally. It was the first rally with the new car on Tarmac, a perfect day. I was happy also to fight with the young drivers in the Abarth Rally Cup. It’s a good result for continuing the season.”

KEN TORN (ERC3, ERC3 Junior winner)
“All day it’s been intense, I drive all the time so hard and over the limit and it’s quite easy to do some mistakes. I’m sorry for Pedro but we are happy. I don’t know where is the gain on Tarmac because I don’t have so much experience but for sure it’s good confidence for my next rally because it’s been a long time with no driving and now we get back into the rhythm behind the wheel. When Pedro overtook me I didn’t really think anything, we just tried to do our best. We didn’t come here to push but we didn’t come here to go cruising so we did our maximum and we did great times.”

ANDREA MABELLINI (Abarth Rally Cup winner)
“I would like to thank the Rally di Roma Capitale organisation and the ERC because they did a very good job, the race was perfect. I want to thank all the team members, the sponsors and the partners for all their support. The race was quite difficult, especially the first day on the bumpy road and gravel. But today was much better and I am happy for the result and I hope to be part of the ERC for the next race.”

ENDS