Suzuki's
Urmo Aava has grabbed the lead in the
FIA Junior Rally Championship standings following his tactical drive to second in Germany over the weekend.
Aava came into the Rallye Deutschland trailing his Suzuki Swift team-mate, Per-Gunnar Andersson, who was leading the race for the JRC title, by 4 points.
However with P-G forced to miss the fifth round in the JRC series, after he picked up a one-month driving ban in his native country, the Estonian knew that he had a great opportunity to go top and in the end that's just want he did.
Speaking at the finish, after ending the event around 50 seconds off Martin Prokop, who took the win, Aava added though that it wasn't easy pacing himself like he did.
"This rally was all about taking things carefully for me, particularly on the final day when it would have been so easy to throw all our hard work away,” he reflected.
“Now we can be very pleased with a job well done, which has given us the lead of the championship: our objective from the very first stage of the rally.
“It wasn't a perfect event for us, which is often the case when you are driving to a certain rhythm.
“We had a couple of overshoots and bounced off a hay bale but it was nothing serious. It's been a very difficult rally - and I'm very, very pleased to get to the end," he added.
Suzuki team boss, Nobuhiro Tajima meanwhile was pleased with Aava's mature drive.
He was also happy with the form of Britain's James Wozencroft, who was drafted in late on to deputise for P-G.
Wozie finished the event in 13th place overall, thanks to the SupeRally formant, having lost time on day 2, when he was forced out in SS10 as a result of brake and suspension damage.
"Germany is the most complicated asphalt event of the year and I would like to commend our drivers for getting through it safely and doing exactly what we asked, despite the difficult circumstances,” Tajima summed-up.
“As a result, Urmo has moved into a well-deserved lead of the championship, and with P-G in second we have a Suzuki one-two!
![Urmo Aava (EE) / Kuldar Sikk (EE) Suzuki Swift S1600 [Junior RC] [Pic credit: Suzuki]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/325054.jpg)
