Hubert Laskowski and Esther Gutierrez have completed the first round of the 2025 European Rally Championship season.

Last weekend, Hubert Laskowski made his debut on ERC tracks, competing in the Sierra Morena Rally, which is on the European Rally Championship calendar for the first time. Laskowski appeared in the Spanish city of Cordoba with his new co-driver, Esther Gutierrez.

The Polish Class 4 champion performed very well already on Friday, taking 1st place in the prologue. The success was all the greater because the Polish driver finished the attempt with a damaged half-shaft in his Peugeot 208 Rally4.

The extremely even ERC4 field maintained a high pace throughout the rally. Hubert had to get a new feel for the car, which he had driven about 50 km in testing before the rally. Another novelty was the English description, which fortunately posed no problem for the driver.

From one stage to the next, Hubert and Esther became more and more confident, but the competition in ERC4 was disrupted by two accidents, due to which the special stages were interrupted and the remaining crews were given time by the organiser.

On OS10, the Polish-Spanish duo even had to activate the accident procedure when they reached the crash site of the Dei Cecci/Lazzarini crew. Fortunately, all ended well and the rally continued.

Laskowski and Gutierrez finished the rally in the top ten (9th place) of the heavily-stacked ERC4 and Junior ERC categories.

– We had a very difficult rally behind us. I will particularly remember the longest special stage, the almost 30km Villaviciosa, which was the toughest of my career. The stakes were extremely even and the pace of the frontrunners was probably higher than in the Junior WRC. However, I am happy because driving in such company is very developmental – said Laskowski.

– I think I drove the rally correctly, but I could have done it even faster. However, I was aware in the back of my mind that if I wrecked the car, I would lose my chances for another start. I would like to thank everyone very much for their help in making this start possible, the Car Speed Racing team and of course Esther, who was great to drive with and I hope to do another start together.

– Now the focus is already on getting the budget together for the next show. It won’t be easy, but we will do our best to get on the start line of the next rally on the European championship calendar – he added.

The next round of the FIA ERC season will be the 6th Rally of Hungary. The event will take place from 9-11 May and its base, like last year, will be Veszprem. A total of 13 special stages with a total length of 191 kilometres await the competitors.