Sardinia: Junior Rally Championship - FinishEstonian crew Urmo Aava (Suzuki) and co-driver Kuldar Sikk took a fantastic victory on the third round of the 2007 FIA Junior Rally Championship, Rally d'Italia Sardegna. Seemingly plagued by bad luck on recent rallies, this victory
is only Aava's second in his four seasons of contesting the Juniors, after winning Turkey last year.
2004 J-WRC champion P-G Andersson (S, Suzuki) brought his Suzuki home just over a minute behind in second, followed by Czech driver Martin Prokop (Citroën) 6min 22.8sec adrift in third.
With a score to settle after narrowly missing a victory in Portugal, Aava started as he meant to continue setting the pace. His only real rival was fellow Swift driver Andersson who traded stage wins with him throughout, and the Swede temporarily took the lead on SS8 when Aava dropped time with a puncture, but the Estonian soon regained the top spot two stages later.
Prokop started the event a little frustrated after he was held up by a problem-ridden Rautenbach on the first day but he spent the whole rally driving carefully, simply to hold on to his third place, which clearly paid dividends.
Defending J-WRC champion Patrik Sandell's (S) rally didn't start as well as he had hoped as the set-up from his gravel test in Sweden wasn't suited to the Sardinian conditions, but his times were good enough to put him in fourth place early on which he defended until leg three. He only had one puncture throughout (SS7) but a damaged engine only three stages before the end saw him stop, to eventually take the last point for eighth.
Aaron Burkart (D, Citroën), who was right behind Sandell for the most of the event, didn't think he had the speed to catch the Swede, so he was happy to adopt fourth at the last minute.
Like others, Jaan Mölder (EE, Suzuki) wasn't happy with his set-up but he drove relatively trouble-free, taking on only one puncture in SS8 and steadily building his confidence to finish in fifth. The result means he holds on to third place in the championship behind Andersson and Aava.
Slovak driver Jozef Béreš rolled his Renault Clio on the first stage of the event, and although it didn't cause much damage, it cost him about nine minutes before he continued. On leg two he had brake problems and on SS12 he came very close to rolling again being a little over ambitious with his speed, but he continued to take three points for sixth.
Bryan Bouffier (Citroën), competing for the PH Sport team and on his first WRC event, had no problems on leg one, except being caught in the dust of those ahead. The 28-year-old Frenchman has been an official Peugeot driver for the last three years and this is his first outing in a Citroën, so his two points for seventh is very respectable. He is also winner of the Rookie Classification for the event, putting him third in the standings.
On the sixth WRC start of his career, Lithuanian Vilius Rozukas started well but the rear sub-frame of his Suzuki broke on SS5, seeing him take on penalties. He was also unlucky on leg two with two punctures (SS11 and SS12) but he drove steadily on the final day to finish ninth behind Sandell.
Irishman Shaun Gallagher (Citroën) managed to stay out of trouble for most of the rally. He had a puncture on SS8, he spun on the stage following but he drove carefully through Sunday's stages to finish 10th in the FIA Juniors and take eight points for the Rookie's Classification, which he now leads by 16 points.
Gilles Schammel (LUX, Citroën) contested this rally last year as part of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International but found the competition this year amongst his Junior rivals much tougher, especially having not covered many kilometres in Portugal. At the end of leg one he broke the gearbox support and brake problems were an issue on SS12, but he finished steadily in 11th place.
Michal Kosciuszko's (POL, Renault) team changed his suspension after the shakedown test, so the starting set-up wasn't good and he blew a damper on SS3. He changed the set-up to Portugal-spec but an overheating engine on SS6 saw him sidelined for leg one. The next day his engine stopped on SS7 after he broke the fuel pump but SS10 saw him damage his rear left suspension which again sidelined him for the rest of the leg and he completed the final day to bring his Renault to the finish in 12th.
On only the second WRC rally of his career, Milos Komljenovic (SCG, Renault) was competing for the first time in Sardinia and in a new car – the Clio R3. He had a puncture on the first stage of the rally but he found the conditions in general very tricky, so he was simply driving to stay in the game, finishing 13th.
Andrea Cortinovis (I) lost the exhaust to his Renault on the first stage and then struggled to hear his co-driver via the intercom for the rest of the group of stages. On SS4 he went off road, at the same place fellow Junior Béreš did on the first run through the test, dropping eight minutes rejoining. He went off the road again on the morning of leg two (SS8), incurring penalties for not completing the rest of the day's stages so he drove steadily on leg three to finish in 14th place.
Belgian driver Raphaël Auquier (Citroën) was one of the few drivers enjoying the rally's rough stages, but he lost about four minutes on leg two after breaking the sub-frame and then went off the road and into a ditch on SS16 on the final, to finish in 15th. Italian Rookie Stefano Benoni (Citroën) had set-up problems on leg one and he went off the road on SS6, so incurred 10 minutes in penalties for not completing that stage, it being the final one of the day. But a landing after a jump on SS15 damaging his radiator saw him stop, to eventually finish 16th.
Unfortunately Alessandro Bettega's (I, Ford) season didn't improve on his home event as a broken suspension on leg one saw his driveshaft dislodged and his car lose a wheel on the opening stage of the rally. He restarted for leg two but an overheating engine on SS8 saw him sidelined for good.
Kalle Pinomäki (FIN, Renault) had a couple of punctures on leg one (SS3 and SS6) but a rock on stage nine bent his steering, making it impossible to continue. Conrad Rautenbach (ZW, Citroën) struggled on leg one with brake problems, narrowly avoiding a number of crashes, but gearbox woes on SS9 quickly truncated his event.
On the second WRC event of his career, Manuel Rueda (E, Renault) suffered an electrical problem on SS1 when the engine stopped and would not restart. Stage eight saw him experience brake problems and he eventually went off the road into a ditch on SS11.
Estonian driver Aigar Pärs (Suzuki) had a difficult rally on his first outing in Sardinia. He had a puncture on SS3, hit a rock on SS6 losing a wheel, had another puncture on SS8, then stopped in SS10 when he damaged the rear left suspension. Finally he set three top-four stage times just before pulling two wheels off in SS17, forcing him to retire.
Urmo Aava (EE), Suzuki Swift S1600
"This is a really sweet win as I was expecting it after Portugal. It's also very good for the championship now as I'm four points behind P-G and it will be a big battle on the three tarmac rallies of the season. In Finland I'm driving a WRC car for the first time with Mitsubishi, so that will be interesting."
P-G Andersson (S), Suzuki Swift S1600
"Today I tried to keep my position without making any mistakes. I'm not very happy with second but there is only one winner. I'm not in Finland but I'm looking forward to Germany."
Martin Prokop (CZ), Citroën C2 S1600
"This rally was very difficult and I'm very happy because two years ago I had rally bad luck here so finishing on the podium is great. Urmo and P-G will not be in Finland so there I will try to push but I think that Pinomäki and Sandell will be quick there too."
FIA Junior Rally Championship
