Both KMS Racing drivers on stage-winning pace – Vatanen Sunday’s fastest
KMS Racing’s first ERC event of the season did not get the successful start as the team hoped for as punctures slowed down the otherwise promising and stage-winning pace of its two youngsters, Ville Vatanen and Craig Rahill.
KMS Racing began their 2026 ERC Campaign with two promising young talents, Irishman Craig Rahill and Finn Ville Vatanen, at the Rally Sierra Morena in Andalucia, Spain. The tarmac-event marked a ERC 4WD debut for Rahill and tarmac debut on 4WD for Vatanen. The three-day event proved to be challenging, but whilst the outcome proved not to be as planned, the key takeaways were the pace shown by both youngsters.
Vatanen on a charge
Vatanen and co-driver Joonas Ojala started the event with the fastest time on shakedown, giving a glimpse of things to come. The Finn started the event cautiously with P4 after SS2, but a puncture on SS3 set the Finn all the way down to 15th. Directly after, the Finn set the fastest stage time on SS4 and SS5. By the end of the day, Vatanen was 12th.
Setting out to minimize the damage, the 19-year-old won four out of six stages on Sunday, elevating himself up to 7th in ERC3 whilst managing to narrow the gap to leader by over a minute. 7th position in ERC3 also translated into P5 in the M-Sport Fiesta Rally3 Trophy results overall.
-The speed is definitely there already in my first rally. The pace improved throughout Saturday after learning and getting good stage kilometers. After a good night’s sleep we set out to minimize the damage by keeping a good rhythm on Sunday, Vatanen said.
-For Sweden, the goal is to win. Gravel is a more familiar surface to me, and we’ve once been there already. The key is to have good preparation and pre-event tests, and I’m sure we’ll be fighting for the win. A big thanks to KMS Racing and my cooperation partners.
Misfortune for Rahill despite the promising pace
Irishman Craig Rahill and co-driver Conor Smoth started the event on the lead pace as well. P2 in shakedown marked a KMS Racing 1-2 and promised good things to come. A stage win on SS2 elevated Rahill into the lead of ERC3, but unfortunately a puncture suffered on SS3 as well dropped the 22-year-old into 13th position. After the misfortune, Rahill hit back posting two second-fastest stage times in the row followed by a 4th fastest time on the day-ending SS7 climbing up to 11th before the night service. However, the Irishman’s rally was unfortunately cut short before the start of SS8 due to sensor fault forcing a retirement.
-Of course I’m disappointed with the weekend’s results, but at the same time we are happy with the pace. Despite our misfortunes, we know that we would have been fighting at the top, which is definitely positive, Rahill said.
-Now we switch to gravel in Sweden. I’m looking forward to getting a taste of the Rally3 on gravel and seeing where our pace is at.
KMS Racing Team Principal Jussi Kumpumäki shares the frustration towards misfortunes, but sees the silver lining in both of the team’s youngsters’ performance.
-It was a tough rally, and sometimes misfortune is a part of the rally. Both Ville and Craig took the bad luck really maturely and made no mistakes throughout the weekend, proving their pace on tarmac. In Sweden, I’m sure we’ll be fighting at the top again, and now we know that we have a winning line-up on both gravel and tarmac, Kumpumäki said.
FIA European Rally Championship continues on the 22nd to 24th of May with ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia in Sweden.
ERC Rally Sierra Morena results – ERC3 & M-Sport Fiesta Rally3 Trophy
1. Lucas Zielinski (FRA) 2:06:23,1
2. Casey Jay Coleman (IRL) +33,2
3. Maximilian Lichtenegger (AUT) +51,4
4. Kalum Graffin (IRL) +1:16,3 (+43,1)
5. Cian Caldwell (IRL) +1:16,8 (+43,6)
6. Petr Kacirek jun. (CZE) +1:23,6 (+50,4)
7. Ville Vatanen (FIN) +2:03,6 (+1:30,4)
Ret. Craig Rahill (IRL)
(Italisized drivers competed also in M-Sport Fiesta Rally3 Trophy)
Photo: Marcin Rybak
