P-G eventually took the honours by 33.9 seconds, with
Citroen C2 runner, Martin Prokop second, just ahead of Aava, who finished 6 seconds further back.
Renault Clio runner, Jozef Beres and Citroen C2 man,
Conrad Rautenbach were fourth and fifth in the class, while Jaan Molder and Aaron Burkart came in sixth and seventh. Yoan Bonato took the final JRC drivers’ point in eighth in his Citroen C2-R2.
In terms of retirements there were a number of casualties, the biggest probably Manfred Stohl, who crashed out in the third stage on Friday. The OMV Kronos Citroen pilot heavily damaged his Xsara in the off and as a result was unable to re-start under the SupeRally format.
There was also some doubt over his participation in Corsica too, but that problem has now been resolved, as he will use the car that had been scheduled to go to Japan.
Munchi’s team leader, Luis-Perez Companc was the only other ‘works’ driver that failed to finish. He went out one stage before Stohl when he went off the road in his Focus. Like Manfred he was unable to re-join the fold.
The
FIA World Rally Championship now has no time to relax as competitors head directly to Corsica for round 13, which gets underway this coming Thursday, October 11.
