Motorsport: Hat-trick for Sébastien Carron and Lucien Revaz
Third SM round, third strike: Sébastien Carron in his Ford Fiesta R5 was also unbeatable at the Rallye du Chablais. Olivier Gillet in the Porsche and Joël Rappaz in the Yokohama-Peugeot S2000 put in a good performance. Sébastien Carron, navigated by Lucien Revaz, took the reins right from the first special stage and never relinquished them. [...]
Sébastien Carron, navigated by Lucien Revaz, took the reins on the first special stage and never relinquished them. After the first stage on Friday, the Welshman was already leading by 53.3 seconds after six SS over his long-term rival Ivan Ballinari. After three more best times in four special stages, he was already 1:13 min. ahead on Saturday morning before he slowed down the pace a bit. "Bally" finished second for the third time with a respectable margin and would now have to work miracles in the second half of the season to still decide the championship for himself.
Successful comeback of Joël Rappaz with Yokohama
The battle between Olivier Gillet and Pascal Perroud for third place overall was more exciting. Before the last SS, Gillet was still in front with the same Porsche 911 GT3 that Olivier Burri had rented for the Critérium Jurassien. With the fastest time, Pascal Perroud was able to turn the tide and thus ensure a triple success for the Ford Fiesta R5. Joël Rappaz's comeback can be considered a success. On Friday, he was still feeling his way around the unfamiliar Peugeot 207 S2000, which was running in the colors and on racing tires of his new partner Yokohama. On the second day, Joël Rappaz turned up the heat and worked his way up from 13th to 5th place. He thus also won the S2000 class ahead of the Basel-Land duo Ruedi Schmidlin/Erich Götte in the Ford Fiesta.
Star pilot François Delécour disappointed his fans
François Delécour, the much heralded professional, disappointed his supporters. After just a few SS kilometers, the Frenchman damaged the Citroën DS3 R5 provided by the importer in a slip and then retired. After finishing the first leg in 5th place, Urs Hunziker had to retire on the second day with a faulty fuel pump on his Mini Cooper WRC. For the same reason, Marc Valliccioni, who had been in third place in the SM, had to retire from his Porsche. In the Junior SM, Aurélien Devanthéry celebrated his second win of the season in the Peugeot 208 R2, as did Cédric Althaus in the Renault Clio Alps Trophy.
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Photos: Jürg Kaufmann, Carron Action
