Motorsport: Well-deserved title for Sébastien Carron

Sébastien Carron gave neither the three strongest foreign guests nor his compatriots a chance, impressively proving that he absolutely deserves the 2016 Swiss championship title. The home driver, navigated by Lucien Revaz, took the lead immediately after the start and never relinquished it on the first stage with eight special stages in and around Sion, despite pressure from Fabio Andolfi in a Hyundai i20 R5 and Jan Cerny in a Skoda Fabia R5. With the fifth fastest time in a row, Andolfi came within 3 seconds of him after the second stage of the second leg, but the Italian retired with a broken wishbone in the following SS. Sébastien Carron's victory was then no longer in danger. The man from Valais won all six rounds of the 2016 Rally Championship with the Ford Fiesta R5 hired from the Italian team Balbosca!

Exciting battle for second place overall
While former champion Olivier Burri was unable to cope with a Hyundai i20 R5 and disappointed, the performance of young Jérémie Toedtli was a revelation. Driving a powerful Skoda Fabia R5 car for the first time, the man from Neuchâtel immediately established himself as the second-best Swiss driver. The final title decision was made in the Junior Championship. Aurélien Devanthéry and Michael Volluz deliberately took a cautious approach to the final race in their Peugeot 208 R2 in order to secure the championship title at the end of the first stage. Freed from this pressure, the duo advanced to the top of the R2 class on the second day, but dropped back to third place due to a time penalty. Ruedi Schmidlin and Erich Götte were the best-placed Swiss-German team with their Ford Fiesta S2000 in 16th place overall, while Urs Hunziker had to retire his Mini Cooper WRC after two stages with turbo damage.

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Photos: Peter Wyss