Corsica - Suzuki Motor Sport - JRC Leg 2Suzuki driver P-G Andersson is on course to be crowned this year's Junior Champion after his team mate Urmo Aava went off the road whilst leading.
P-G ends leg two of the Rallye de France in fifth place, but he has just concentrated
on driving in the middle of the road in order to bring his Suzuki Swift safely to the finish.
P-G and Urmo started the event equal on points, needing to beat each other to claim the title. Urmo took the lead in Corsica, but crashed out on a fast left-hand corner in SS8 when P-G was only 13 seconds behind him.
This means that P-G is virtually assured of a second Junior Championship title, having first won the series with Suzuki in 2004. Despite crashing out of this event, Urmo is still virtually assured of second in the championship - making it a Suzuki one-two.
P-G Andersson (5th in JRC after SS12):
"First of all, I'd like to say that I genuinely feel sorry for Urmo: this is not how I wanted the fight to end. I couldn't believe it when I saw that he had gone off in the stage, and I had to force myself extremely hard to concentrate. Later on in the same stage I had a spin: this caused a puncture that I had to stop and change, costing me about two minutes. After that I was able to focus on the job again.
I just concentrated on bringing the car home safely for the rest of the day: it's unlikely that we'll see any more fastest times from me this weekend!"
Urmo Aava (Retired, SS8):
"What can I say? P-G was not far behind today so we had no choice but to push. And whenever you push hard on an event as difficult as this one, anything can happen. I just went into a left-hand corner a bit too quickly and understeered off the road: it was my mistake. These things happen in rallying sometimes and you have to accept the disappointments along with the triumphs."
Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima, Team Principal:
"I feel sorry for Urmo who had driven a fantastic rally up until the stage when he went off. He was feeling the pressure from P-G, which is normal when there is a big fight like this. P-G has done a sensible job today, and he needs to continue like this tomorrow in order to be sure of making the finish. Only then can he celebrate!"
Junior Rally Championship after SS12, Tour de Corse:
1 Martin Prokop (Citroen C2 S1600) 2h37m17.6s
2 Josef Beres (Renault Clio S1600) +34.9s
3 Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen C2 S1600) +1m11.4s
4 Yoann Bonato (Citroen C2 S1600) +1m48.7s
5 P-G Andersson (Suzuki Swift S1600) +2m31.0s
6 Arnaud Augoyard (Renault Clio R3) +4m40.4s
7 Michal Kosciuszko (Suzuki Swift S1600) +5m10.9s
8 Andrea Cortinovis (Renault Clio S1600) +5m35.3s
Suzuki Motor Sport
