Amongst those World Rally Car drivers was
Suzuki Swift S1600 pilot Michal Kosciuszko and he took the Junior World Rally Championship honours. Kosciuszko was engaged in a fierce fight with Martin Prokop for much of the event, but that battle ended in SS16, when the Czech had an engine problem, which dropped him down to 10th.
Alessandro Bettega thus inherited the runners-up spot, over 4 minutes off P1, while Aaron Burkart completed the JWRC podium, followed by Shaun Gallagher and current Junior championship leader, Sebastien Ogier. Ogier had to retire on day one, but came back to take four points for P5.
Stefano Albertini, Patrik Sandell and Hans Weijs Jr completed the JWRC points' scorers in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.
In terms of retirees the biggest casualty was Suzuki’s
Toni Gardemeister, who retired on both day two and day three. On Saturday he had a suspension problem, while an electrical glitch stopped him post-SS14.
A number of other drivers' also failed to get to the end, including Andreas Mikkelsen, who rolled his Ramsport-run Focus in SS2, as well as four JWRC runners - namely Florian Niegel, Milos Komljenovic, Simone Bertolotti and Kevin Abbring.
The World Rally Championship now remains in the Mediterranean and heads to Greece in less than two weeks time. The all-gravel Acropolis Rally is based in Athens and runs from May 29 to June 1.
