Sardinia JRC: Citroën Sport - Leg 2On leg two of the rally, the crews faced another two loops of three special stages. Today's six stages were less rough than those of yesterday, but according to the C2 Junior Experience drivers they were every bit as tricky.
The
two Junior Championship leaders were still out in front at the end of leg two – but the final podium place was for a long time fought out by the Citroën C2 Super 1600 cars of Martin Prokop and Aaron Burkart.
In the end, the advantage went to Prokop. Burkart had to settle for fifth after his team mate pulled out a gap that was too big to overhaul. Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach, driving the third C2 Super 1600, was forced into retirement after breaking his car's gearbox on SS9.
There was drama in the Citroën C2-R2 class as well. Shaun Gallagher, who had been in front up until today, lost some time and his lead following a puncture in the morning. The Irishman ended the leg 10th overall in the Junior classification and second in the R2 category.
In front of him was Bryan Bouffier, who continued to make consistent progress and reached the top spot amongst the C2-R2 runners. He has also climbed up the overall Junior Championship leaderboard, to hold a provisional eighth place.
Behind the leading duo are the Citroën C2-R2s run by the Kronos team. Gilles Schammel brought his C2 home in 12th overall amongst the Juniors and third of the C2-R2s.
Raphael Auquier is two minutes behind him in 13th.
After his setbacks on the opening day, Stefano Benoni drove carefully through today's stages to end the leg in 16th place.
Raphaël Auquier (B) Citroën C2-R2
"It was not a very satisfying day for us as we kept on having problems. That left us somewhat disappointed with our performances throughout today's two loops of stages. We came back to service this evening with the engine cradle virtually touching the ground: there's a lot of work to do on the car, but at least we'll be able to set off with more confidence tomorrow."
Bryan Bouffier (F) Citroën C2-R2
"I'm still having a lot of fun with this little car ! I'm very happy to be leading the C2-R2 classification tonight, but I will need to defend this place tomorrow as Shaun is coming quickly. Nonetheless, I'm not taking any unnecessary risks : I know the limits, I'm sticking to them and I'm steering well clear of all the really tricky places. What I will remember about this rally most of all are these really good stages…“
Stefano Benoni (I) Citroën C2-R2
"We've still got the problem we had yesterday with the suspension and that means that we cannot attack at 100%. We were still able to perform well in the afternoon though, particularly on SS10. We just want to keep everything consistent now so that we're there at the finish."
Aaron Burkart (D) Citroën C2 Super 1600
"We were not particularly happy with the times we set today. We seemed to lose a few seconds on all the stages; maybe because of a lack of traction. Equally I found that there was a lot of dust on the stages, which slowed us down a bit. Tomorrow is a shorter day, so we will see how it pans out by the time we get to the finish."
Shaun Gallagher (EI) Citroën C2-R2
"We lost a lot of time this morning with our puncture on SS8. Once more, the stages were very rough and tricky today. I'm finding this rally very tiring, particularly because of the heat. It has been really hard so far, and I need to carry on being careful throughout the final leg tomorrow in order to be sure of getting to the finish."
Martin Prokop (CZ) Citroën C2 Super 1600
"I'm happy with our performances today. We went well through both loops of stages I think. I'm not pushing too hard and I'm taking a lot of care not to make a mistake. I know that I cannot catch the two drivers in front of me and so I am just concentrating on keeping my place all the way to the finish in Porto Cervo tomorrow afternoon."
Conrad Rautenbach (ZW) Citroën C2 Super 1600
"When I was changing gear in SS9, my gearbox seized and I had to stop. That's obviously really disappointing for us. Unfortunately, even if I started again tomorrow under the SupeRally system, I still would not be able to score any points in the Junior Championship on this rally. So on the whole I think it's better to stop."
Gilles Schammel (L) Citroën C2-R2
"I enjoyed the stages today and I am a lot happier than I was yesterday. There are some places which are still really difficult, but generally the roads are a lot better than those on the first leg.“
Citroën Sport
