In Saturday's Fafe WRC Rally Sprint – the warm-up to the Rally de Portugal – Robert Kubica made his gravel debut in a Citroen DS3 RRC, taking first place amongst drivers not running WRC cars.

With his debut on Portuguese gravel, the Polish driver has proven that he can go toe-to-toe with the world’s leading rally drivers. Finishing fifth, Kubica lost only nine tenths of a second to fourth-placed Andreas Mikkelsen in the Volkswagen Polo R WRC, with the winning position going to Dani Sordo in the Citroen DS3 WRC.

The Fafe WRC Rally Sprint is a three stage event over six kilometres, and was this year one of the most spectacular dates on the racing calendar, bringing together more than 100,000 fans.

“It was a very nice stage, but it was very difficult for us, very slippery,” said Robert of the first run. “We drove carefully, learning the gravel roads.” Even so, the Polish crew took the eighth best time on their first run, and the sixth in their second trip, easily finding their berth in the Fafe WRC Rally Sprint’s final.

The Fafe Sprint takes place in the north of Portugal, and is considered by many teams to be a good test before the April 12 start of the fourth round of the 2013 World Rally Championship, the Rally de Portugal. Both Polish crews – Michal Kosciuszko and Maciej Szczepaniak (representing the LOTOS Rally Team) as well as Robert Kubica and Maciek Baran – were truly put to the test today.

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