British Renault driver Hal Ridge made a good start to the 2012 season in Round 4 of the ERC at Nyirád in Hungary.

Last weekend saw Hal Ridge make his first start of the 2012 season at Nyirád in Hungary. After a long wait while the team desperately attempted to solve the problems that had kept them away from the start of both British and European Rallycross Championships, Ridge and his team headed to round four of the ERC. In temperatures exceeding 30 °C, and despite having to overcome braking problems during the course of the weekend, the team came away confident that they had done all they could at the most challenging circuit in Europe, finishing 26th of the 30 starters.

“We had a few problems with the brakes this weekend. They felt horrible, I even bent the brake pedal trying to stop at one point, but we managed to ease those problems to give me more confidence,” said Ridge. The Nyirád Circuit in Northern Hungary requires large amounts confidence and commitment, and by the second day of racing Ridge had learnt his way around the fast and yet twisty track. “I felt I drove better than I have ever on Sunday, and was committed though the fast corners. I felt we got as much out of the car as we could, we are really struggling for power from the engine at the moment compared to the people ahead of us,” said the 25-year-old.

Ridge: “We have studied the lap times and if we had the same power as those directly ahead of us we would have finished in the top 20 no problem. This is something we have to work on quickly before the next event, we will be bringing updates to all the events we do this year. We have to make sure we do as much as we can before the introduction of our new Twingo towards the end of the year, that will be a big step forward!”

The next event that Ridge will contest will be Round three of the Monster Energy MSA British Rallycross Championship, in association with MaKTraK  takes place at Mallory Park on 22nd July, before heading to Round 5 of the European Rallycross Championship at Massmechelen, Belgium on August 4th and 5th.