Claire Schönborn believes her maiden gravel rally provided the "best preparation" for Vodafone Rally de Portugal (15 – 18 May), as she gears up for her second FIA Junior WRC start of the season.
The German driver, who won the inaugural WRC Promoter's Beyond Rally Women's Driver Development Programme, tackled last weekend's Rali Terras D'Aboboreira - a Portuguese championship round - as a warm-up for Portugal's iconic WRC fixture.
Schönborn and fellow finalist Lyssia Baudet were both handed fully-funded drives at February's Rally Sweden for the opening round of the FIA Junior WRC. The event also served as a head-to-head evaluation, with Schönborn emerging as the selected candidate to contest the remaining four rounds of the season at the wheel of an M-Sport Poland Ford Fiesta Rally3, co-driven by Jara Hain.
Despite a turbulent build-up to Rali Terras D'Aboboreira, which included an engine failure during testing, Schönborn delivered an eye-catching performance to finish 15th overall and fourth in a Rally3 class which included 2024 Junior WRC runner-up Taylor Gill and regular podium finisher Eamonn Kelly - even clocking top-three stage times in the category.
"The rally weekend was really good, even if it was a really tough weekend," she explained. "We had some problems bringing the car from Germany to Portugal and on the pre-event test we had an engine failure - so the engine was defective afterwards and we needed to change it. It was a really busy week before the rally weekend itself."
The event also marked Schönborn's first competitive outing on gravel - and in true Portuguese style, she faced a mix of dry and wet conditions across the weekend.
"It was my very first time on gravel and it was a big challenge because the weather conditions were changing so much," she said. "At one stage it was dry and I was really comfortable in the car - you could see my times were pretty okay, maybe 1.5 seconds per kilometre from the leaders.
"Then it started raining really heavily, so it was just muddy and really slippery. I hit a barrier and damaged the car a bit - nothing major, I could keep going - but I was careful in the wet, so I lost some time there."
Despite the setbacks, the experience proved invaluable as she looks ahead to Portugal's gravel roads for the FIA Junior WRC's second round.
"Overall, the rally was really good. It was a big learning lesson and I think now we are well prepared for Rally Portugal," she added. "I collected valuable kilometres and stages. I could really see how fast a stage can change - in the first pass it was completely wet and muddy, and in the second pass it was nearly dry. It was really impressive.
"I'm really happy we could do the rally - I think it was the best preparation we could have done for Rally de Portugal."
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