WRC2: Suninen (Ford) take the victory and have now the eye on the overall runner-up position

10/10/2017

With the championship title already awarded at the German rally to Pontus Tidemand (Skoda), winner of 4 out of 10 rounds staged up to the RallyRACC, the participation at this rally had a small setback as regards entry of drivers on the top positions of the provisional classification of the WRC2 series, but not as regards the number of participants, since there were 15 teams taking part in Salou, of which only one was not able to finish the race, namely Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall (Ford), who overturned during the first gravel stage.

After the first rally day, it became clear who would be the favourite to clinch the victory at the rally, since Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford) were able to win 5 out of 6 special stages, and just because the leading couple broke the power steering at the penultimate stage and lost the last one against the Skoda of Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler.  But despite the mishap, the first day ended with Suninen on top, with an advantage of more than one minute over Simone Tempestini/Giovanni Bernacchini (Citroën) and Kopecký, who dominated the two remaining days on asphalt, taking the victory of the 13 stages.

But despite his wins, Kopecký was not able to reduce the distance to Suninen in order to put him under pressure, and the Finn resisted on his first position until clinching his first overall victory in the WRC2. They were joined on the podium by Mexican driver Benito Guerra (Skoda) and his Spanish co-driver Dani Cué, while the only Spanish team, current Spanish Champion Cristian García and co-driver Pablo Marcos, finished seventh. This was their first participation in the class, and after an average first day, during which they went off the track loosing some time, they felt more comfortable on asphalt, with a third and fourth stage finish, as their best partial results.

Final Classification WRC2 at the RallyRACC
1-Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta R5), 2h46'14''5
2-Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5), + 37''7
3-Benito Guerra/Daniel Cué (Skoda Fabia R5), + 4'04''7
4-Juuso Nordgren/Tapio Suominen (Skoda Fabia R5), + 4'50''4
5-Simone Tempestini/Giovanni Bernacchini (Citroën DS3 R5), + 4'56''8
6-Lukasz Pieniazek/Przemyslaw Mazur (Peugeot 208 T16 R5), + 6'55''9
7-Cristian García/Pablo Marcos (Ford Fiesta R5), + 7'41''4
8-Orhan Avcioglu/Burcin Korkmaz (Skoda Fabia R5), + 9'01''4
9-Jon Armstrong/Noel O'Sullivan (Ford Fiesta R5), + 12'57''5
10-Yoann Bonato/Benjamin Boulloud (Citroën DS3 R5), + 15'42''3
11-Rhys Yates/Alex Lee (Ford Fiesta R5), + 23'33''8
12-Fabio Andolfi/Simone Scattolin (Hyundai i20 R5), + 45'10''8
13-Gus Greensmith/Craig Parry (Ford Fiesta R5), + 45'12''7
14-Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen (Ford Fiesta R5), + 1h07'23''6

Provisional Classification WRC2
1-Pontus Tidemand (Skoda), 133 points
2-Teemu Suninen (Ford), 85 points
3-Jan Kopecký (Skoda), 85 points
4-Eric Camilli (Ford), 77 points
5-Ole Christian Veiby (Skoda), 68 points