"My goal was just to get to the end of that last stage," said P-G post-SS16. "I'm delighted to have taken the Junior Championship for the second time and to give Suzuki this title on the same weekend as the debut of their World Rally Car."

Of the rest, Andreas Cortinovis was sixth followed by Aaron Burkart, who lost too much time on day 2 with an off and Rautenbach. Conrad had to settle for the final point in the end after a double puncture in the penultimate test, which cost him more than 5 minutes.

The Zimbabwean was not at all pleased: "I'm really disappointed to have lost a podium place so close to the end," he confirmed.

Renault's Michal Kosciuszko and Stefano Benoni were ninth and tenth respectively, the latter taking the rookie class win in his Citroen C2-R2.

In total 14 of the 17 JRC runners finished the event - Aava, Aigar Pars and Gilles Schammel were the three retirees.