Portugal : Junior Rally Championship - Finish2004 J-WRC champions P-G Andersson (S, Suzuki) and co-driver Jonas Andersson took a last minute victory on the second round of the 2007 FIA Junior Rally Championship, Rally de Portugal, passing Urmo Aava (EE, Suzuki) on the penultimate
stage of the event and winning by a margin of only 3.7 seconds. Jozef Béreš (SK) brought his Renault Clio home in third, albeit seven minutes 48.9 seconds adrift.
While Andrea Cortinovis (I, Renault) won the opening superspecial stage, Aava set a blistering pace to kick off leg one proper and over the three days he continued to build his lead winning most of the stages on the first two days. His nearest challenger on the opening day was Martin Prokop (CZ, Citroën) but even he lay 20 seconds back from the Estonian by the middle of leg one. Then a spectacular accident for Prokop on SS5 saw the Czech driver roll his C2 five times before coming to a stop in a ditch off the road, making way for Andersson to adopt his spot, with Michal Kosciuszko (POL, Renault) behind in third. The Polish driver held position until he went off the road on the second stage of leg two. He struggled to restart his engine and any progress he could have made was denied him when Gilles Schammel (LUX, Citroën) went off the road in the same place, landing on Kosciuszko's roof, causing terminal damage.
With Kosciuszko out of contention, Slovak driver Jozef Béreš (Renault) stepped up to third which he carefully defended, as well as having to borrow a shock absorber from retiree Kosciuszko on the final day to reach the finish. Despite experiencing a string of problems ranging from pace notes that he wasn't happy with, to punctures, a broken clutch and a less than favourable set-up, Jaan Mölder (EE, Suzuki) claimed fourth early on leg two which he defended while praying that he remained problem-free for the final day.
Contending his first ever gravel rally in a S1600 car, Andrea Cortinovis (I, Renault) experienced brake problems on SS2 and he dropped four minutes changing a puncture on SS9, but otherwise the Italian drove relatively trouble-free to score his best result in the Juniors to date, finishing fifth.
On his debut season in the FIA Juniors, Manuel Rueda (E, Renault) found the event tricky in a brand new car that he had not tested beforehand, but the Spaniard steadily built on his confidence, despite experiencing a damaged gearbox on leg one and some suspension problems on leg two, scoring three points for sixth on his first ever WRC rally. He is also winner of the Rookie Classification for the event.
Shaun Gallagher's (IRL, Citroën) rally was eventful to say the least. On the first day he kept catching Milos Komljenovic (SCG, Renault) half way through the stages and was stuck in the dust in his wake, but things improved once he was granted an extra minute time gap. Being used to cars with push button starts, he left the keys to his car in his hotel on leg two by accident and they had to break the steering column to access the wires to manually start the car. Unfortunately, tampering with the wires caused the windscreen wipers to run continuously for the first group of stages. Then the gearshift came loose from the floor and had to be re-welded and then he drove with a broken engine mount on leg three. But for his first rally on gravel in the C2-R2 and with no testing, he was fairly pleased to take home the two points for seventh.
On the fifth WRC start of his career, Lithuanian Vilius Rozukas took care of his Suzuki from the start and a levelheaded drive throughout rewarded him with an almost trouble-free event until the final day, when he lost a wheel on the first stage of leg three, incurring penalties for all the stages not completed. But he still managed to score the last available point.
Kalle Pinomäki (FIN, Renault) started with a couple of spins on the opening stage proper and then had to slow two stages later when he caught Rautenbach in the stage. Then a puncture hindered him on the next stage only four kilometres before the end so he continued but broke the steering arm in the process, sidelining himself for the rest of the day. He had brake problems and a small off-road excursion at the start of leg two then a broken driveshaft on SS11 sidelined him once again. He restarted for the final day to finish ninth.
Conrad Rautenbach (ZW, Citroën) had a difficult rally as he hit a tree stump on SS4, causing a puncture, pulling him down the order from sixth to tenth. He had brake problems on the first stage of leg two and was forced to stop on SS8 with a driveshaft failure. He restarted for leg three and stayed out of trouble to finally finish 10th. Raphaël Auquier (B, Citroën) lost his power steering half way through the start of SS2, the first stage proper, so was forced to complete the rest of the group without it. Then on leg two he continued with a front left puncture for the last 15km of SS10, damaging the suspension. But as he's on his debut WRC rally, his goal was to take it easy to gain experience and to reach the finish, which he did in 11th place.
On his first ever WRC rally, Komljenovic struggled slightly with the length of the stages as they require more stamina than the shorter rallies he is used to. Having only ever competed on asphalt, this was also his first gravel event and the first time he has driven a S1600 car after only six days testing. So all in all, his steady drive building confidence with his driving and his pace notes, was a great approach to finish in 12th.
Brother-in-law to World Champion
Sebastien Loeb, Dominique Rebout (F, Citroën) had a rally of learning as he was also on his first WRC event, in a new car with a new co-driver, on a surface he has very little experience of. He was lacking in confidence to start with but he built on it steadily throughout the event and apart from catching Bettega on the final day and dropping time to change a puncture on SS17, he ran relatively trouble-free to finish in 13th place.
Aigar Pärs (EE, Suzuki) unfortunately spent more time utilising the SupeRally restart system than he did on the stages as his sub-frame broke on the first stage proper on leg one, then he went off a bridge into the river below early on leg two. With nothing to lose he decided to drive leg three to the finish simply to get more experience of the Portuguese roads, to bring his Swift home in 14th.
Defending J-WRC champion Patrik Sandell's (S) rally started badly and didn't get any better. He hit a barrier on a bridge 12 kilometres into stage three, destroying the front left corner of the car, which sidelined him for the rest of the day. He restarted leg two with 25 minutes of penalties but stopped to change a puncture on SS9. Then he stopped to change another puncture on the last stage of the day only to find a few kilometres later that the wheel had come off. Despite not having a chance to score points, the Swede restarted leg three to continue developing the R3, and eventually finished 15th after stopping again with engine problems.
Gilles Schammel (LUX, Citroën) wasn't much more lucky than a few of his other Junior colleagues as he rolled his C2- R2 only five kilometres into SS2, collecting penalties for the rest of the day then on SS9 he made a mistake, going off the road and landed on the roof of Kosciuszko's car that went off just ahead of him. He eventually finished in 16th place. Alessandro Bettega (I, Ford) had a difficult rally as he lost time on leg one with an overheating engine and he had to sit out of leg two while the team made repairs to a damaged suspension. He restarted the final day but the rear right wheel of his Fiesta broke on the first stage, and with leaking dampers too, he decided to withdraw before causing any more damage. Stefano Benoni (I, Citroën) damaged the steering on SS2 and knocked his wheel out of line the stage following, but it was an accident on the first stage of leg two which forced his retirement.
Junior Rally Championship
