Suzuki's Per-Gunnar Andersson looks well placed to score and give the all-new SX4 WRC car its first ever points finish on the Rallye Monte Carlo tomorrow after finishing day 3 in eighth.
P-G enjoyed a very promising day and set top eight stage times in every single test, including a brilliant fifth fastest time in SS9 - the first stage of the day, the 19.37 kilometre-run through Labatie d'Andaure-Lalouvesc 1.
Having started the leg in eleventh it was a great turnaround for the two-time Junior champion and while he did of course benefit from the misfortune that struck
Daniel Sordo and
Jari-Matti Latvala, it takes nothing away from the Swede's form which was extremely good. Indeed considering this is his first outing in a WRC car, it makes it all the more impressive.
"I'm very pleased with the way that today went and I also think that I improved my driving technique a lot as well," said Andersson. "I was doing a lot less braking today and using higher gears to carry some more momentum: that was where I made up the time.
"If we can carry on like this it would be fantastic, so I need to concentrate on getting to the finish now. But I have to say that today was even better than I expected."
Suzuki team boss, Nobuhiro Tajima meanwhile was delighted to see P-G do so well. He was also happy with the times set by
Toni Gardemeister in the sister car, however with the Finn forced to retire post-SS14 due to overheating problems, he will be keeping his fingers crossed now that Andersson's car holds together over the final 66 competitive kilometres.
"Naturally we are all very pleased by the speed that P-G and Toni have shown today. However, it's important for us not to get carried away," he added. "There's still a long way to go with the extremely challenging Col de Turini stages and we have a lot of work left to carry out this year.
"After this rally, we will have some more ideas about where to focus our efforts in order to develop the car further and prevent problems such as the one we experienced with Toni recurring."
