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Round 14: 49th Rallye de France Tour de Corse
Pictures of the Rallye de France Tour de Corse 2005 here.
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TWO LANCER WRC05s FINISH TRICKY TOUR DE CORSE Galli 9th and Rovanperä 10th in Lancer WRC05s with knowledge gained The Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports WRC crew of "Gigi" Galli and Guido d’Amore finished the Rallye de France - Tour de Corse, the 14th round of the FIA World Rally Championship, in ninth position. Team-mates Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen were 10th, claiming the final Manufacturer’s Championship point, while Gilles and Hervé Panizzi failed to re-start this morning following what is now confirmed as a problem with the engine ECU.
The third leg of the Rallye de France was the shortest but again took in two loops of two identical stages. The route covered 95.46 competitive kilometers before the finish in Ajaccio at 13:50 hrs (local). Surprisingly, the weather over all three days of competition remained clear, fine and hot with barely a cloud in the sky; a stark contrast to the event’s reputation of having the most changeable and unpredictable weather conditions in the series. Gigi Galli remained focused on finishing the event, gaining valuable experience in his first outing on the island in a world rally car. The Italian fought hard over the closing stages but was overhauled by Peugeot’s Nicolas Bernardi after more set-up changes to the Lancer WRC05. Looking ahead to Spain next week, team-mate Harri Rovanperä tried a totally different set-up for the final two stages but ultimately it proved difficult to accurately evaluate due to harder tires this afternoon. "It’s disappointing that the car hasn’t worked as we thought this weekend", said Harri. "It’s not what we expected and all we can say really is that we finished. On the positive side I am happy with the evolution of Pirelli’s dry weather tire; that is good news for the future and we are certainly closer to the competition now". Adding to the drivers’ comments, Roger Estrada, Principal Rally Engineer, said: "It’s been a difficult event for us with technical problems, but the team is doing its best to resolve these issues in a very short time-frame before Catalunya. The performance of Pirelli’s dry tire was encouraging and this is a good step forward though". While this event was a qualifying round of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship, a number of Group N crews were fighting for their own category honors. Frenchman Marc Valliccioni finished second in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution behind Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala. Mitsubishi was however celebrating a victory this weekend. The Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Evolution crew of Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard clinched a superb victory in the 19th Baja Anta Da Serra 500-Portalegre today, the fourth round of the FIA International Cup for Cross Country Bajas. News from our rivals In a remarkable feat of supremacy and consistency, Sébastien Loeb set another record by winning every stage of the event to claim his first victory on the island. The Frenchman had a winning margin of one minute 51.7 seconds over Ford’s Toni Gardemeister, the Finn equaling his best results of the season. Petter Solberg finished third with Subaru team-mate Stéphane Sarrazin equaling his best FIA WRC event result, in fourth. Roman Kresta gave Ford a double-points haul with fifth position while Škoda finished sixth with Alexandre Bengué in the Fabia WRC. François Duval, who had held second, retired after losing a wheel this morning. |
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| M: drivers nominated in the FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers J: drivers eligible for FIA Junior World Rally Championship points |
(by mitsubishi-motors.com)