Pablo Suárez has professed himself pleased with
his results and progress over the course of the 2023 FIA RX2e Championship season, as he aims to ‘continue
his adventure’ in the FIA World Rallycross Championship feeder series in 2024.
A driver with a rallying background, Suárez
dipped his toe into the rallycross waters during the inaugural campaign of RX2e
– and he has been a mainstay ever since. After placing third overall in 2021
and sixth last year, the Gran Canaria native was a consistent contender once
again in 2023.
Heading to Germany’s Estering last month for
the season finale, Suárez was embroiled in a tight tussle for fourth place in
the championship standings in the fiercely-contested single-spec series. Discovering
the Buxtehude-based circuit for the first time, he spent Qualifying Practice getting
to grips with its ‘old-school’ layout – restricting him to just the tenth-fastest
time – but the heats would be a different story.
A brace of race wins – taking his 2023 tally to
five – elevated the 30-year-old to fifth in the intermediate classification,
and in heat four, he wound up an excellent second behind only guesting World RX
star Niclas Grönholm.
Unfortunately, the semi-final was where his
challenge would end, as contact with another car broke his steering arm. Although
he battled bravely on, the handicap ultimately proved too great for him to
advance to the final, as he missed out by just under a second.
Still, despite that setback, Suárez had already
done enough to secure fourth in the title table – ‘best-of-the-rest’ behind the
pace-setting trio of Nils Andersson, Isak Sjökvist and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky,
and narrowly pipping Filip Thorén in the intra-team Zeroid Motorsport duel.
“Overall, it was a great weekend
in Germany, with two
race wins, fun battles and consistent lap times,” he reflected. “It was bitter to be left at the gates of the
final knowing the potential we had, but we achieved our objective of fourth
place in the championship thanks to our good performances in the heats.
“In a season like this – in which the level in
RX2e has increased again – that is a very positive result and only gives us
more wings to continue this adventure, which has been made possible by the
invaluable support of my sponsors, who have continued to place their trust in
me.
“Thanks to them and to the entire QEV team –
who have done another impeccable job – we have taken an important step forward
this year in this exciting world of rallycross, and together with them I hope
to take many more steps forward over the coming years...”
Finland
Italy
Hungary