My ERC Rally di Roma Capitale. By Catie Munnings

Expect the unexpected"Nobody knew what to expect about this rally. “We'd heard the Tarmac was slippery, even in the dry, but it was still a bit of a shock to begin with. We won the first city stage [in the ERC Ladies’ Trophy] on Friday night so felt good going into Saturday's long loop. However, after a couple of scary moments on the second stage on Saturday we decided to take it steady all day. The others did too and there were only a few seconds between us.”

Tight on tyres“Tyres were an issue for us. We only just made it to this rally as our budget is tight, so we had to stay on the same tyres for whole of Saturday. We dropped something like 20s to the others after midday service where they had put on fresh rubber. It was annoying because it felt like we did a good time but tyres make all the difference so I was going to need to up the pace to make that back.”

Mixed reaction to stage cancellation“There was a delay before the last stage of the day on Saturday, which meant we'd be going into the dark, which I enjoy and generally go quite well in. But then while we were waiting it started raining and with no possibility to change to softer wet tyres it would have been more than a bit tricky so it was a big relief to hear the stage was to be cancelled. Part of the appeal of rallying is the challenge, dealing with whatever is thrown at us and getting caught on hard dry tyres in the rain is part of it, you just drive accordingly and try to stay on the road. But that stage was seriously fast and the Tarmac in that region looks like it has tiny chippings of marble in it, when it's wet it's literally like ice.”

Early hopes ditched“Heavy rain came in overnight but by the time we reached the start of the first stage 40 minutes away, it was drying out fast. We decided this might be a good opportunity to go for it and get some of the lost 20s back. We pushed as hard as we could without taking risks but just overshot a junction and slipped slowly into a ditch nose first. With no spectators around to help us get back onto the road it took us almost 10 minutes with nothing but total determination to get ourselves going again. After that we just had to stay on the road to get the points. It was a rally full of drama and proves that fighting to the last does pay off.

At the end of the day…"On the whole I'm pleased with our rally, we won some stages and proved we are on the pace. I never fully felt 100 per cent able to commit to the roads, it’s the same for everyone but the grip was very changeable and I always felt like I was trying to slow down rather than drive fast. We are happy to reach the finish and forgetting the time we spent off the road our times this weekend showed we are comfortably on the that pace and so now we can set ourselves the next target and progress.”