Rossel last competed in January at Rally Monte Carlo, where he clinched the WRC2 class win on the final special stage by a narrow margin of four seconds ahead of Spaniard Pepe Lopez.
Known as an asphalt specialist, Rossel admits that the three-month break has been long.
“Ah yes, of course! There’s definitely a gap. There was also a break in our testing. The last time we drove, it had been almost two months since I’d been in the car and it felt strange,” Rossel states on the pages of the French magazine AutoHebdo.
“I had done a little thing on a track which was pretty cool, but it was nothing like rallying. Then, when I got back into the C3, it was a bit intense at first. I had to get my bearings again.”
Rossel’s fiercest competitors, such as Lopez, Nikolay Gryazin, and Nicolas Ciamin, have been competing in smaller rallies as preparation. However, Rossel is relying on his experience.
“I can’t say that I’m not worried. It’s just that this has been our way of operating since 2021. So far, it hasn’t gone too badly for us. After Croatia, we should be heading to a gravel rally before Portugal,” Rossel explains.
“I’m not saying that we’re going to come back and it will be easy to dominate, but I believe that with the experience I now have, I can approach this round calmly. The team has worked well, I have a good feeling with my car, my engineer.”
Rossel has already won in Croatia twice before, so he is undeniably the favourite to win the WRC2 class again this time. However, the experienced Frenchman points out that one must be cautious with the conditions in Croatia.
“This will be our fourth participation in this country. I’m starting to know the stages well. There isn’t much new this year, but with the conditions, it’s impossible to anticipate what we will encounter. In the world championship, the tarmac meetings aren’t really that. There is so much debris that it’s difficult to talk about racing on asphalt,” Rossel emphasizes.
“It’s a rally that must be respected with a multitude of grip changes. You can’t go full throttle in Croatia. It’s a mini Monte Carlo.”
