Rally: Duel of the two best
At the Rally Pays du Gier, Sébastien Carron and Ivan Ballinari fought the expected duel for victory in the first round of the Swiss Rally Championship. Once again, the man from Valais retained the upper hand. Sébastien Carron and Ivan Ballinari know the terrain around the town of Saint-Chamond in the French department of Loire well. The Valaisan rider set there [...]
Sébastien Carron and Ivan Ballinari know the terrain around the town of Saint-Chamond in the French department of Loire well. The Valais native laid the foundation for winning the title there a year ago with his first victory in the Rally Pays du Gier. And the Ticino native won this race in 2012 and 2014, with his second success coming in a direct battle against Carron in identical Peugeot 207 S2000s. So why not do it again?
As in the previous year, "Bally" initially provided tough resistance to the champion in France. In the two special stages on Friday evening, Carron and Ballinari each set a fastest time in their Ford Fiesta R5s, and the same was true on Saturday morning at the start of the second stage. After that, the man from Valais extended his lead with four more fastest times, each ahead of Ballinari, from 7 seconds after SS4 to 23.5 seconds after the final stage (total 155.8 km).
Ballinari admitted that he had not pushed hard towards the end, but had finished safely in second place. "Carron was simply stronger," the beaten man admitted frankly. In view of the championship, which Ballinari will contest in full, unlike the defending champion, this second place is also valuable.
Same finish as last year
Behind Frenchman Thibault Habouzit in a Skoda Fabia R5, Marc Valliccioni brought his Porsche 911 GT3 home in fourth place and third in the SM standings. Exactly the same result at the Swiss season opener - Carron ahead of Ballinari and Valliccioni - already happened in 2016.
Nicolas Althaus in his Skoda Fabia R5 was always in control of Michael Burri (Ford Fiesta) and Cédric Althaus (Peugeot 208 T16), who had switched from the Renault Clio R3T to a faster R5 car. Daniel Sieber finished his first rally after a break of many years with Tim Kränzlein as co-driver in seventh place in the SM class. The man from Zurich lost a lot of time towards the end due to a gearbox problem on his Ford Fiesta R5.
In the Junior SS, Nicolas Lathion took advantage of a mistake made by Niki Bühler. The Ticino native led until a time-consuming slip into a field, after which the Frenchman took the lead in his Peugeot 208 R2. The class win in the R1 Juniors went to Thomas Schmid from St. Gallen with his co Cornel Frigoli in a Renault Twingo RS.
The next round of the Rallye-SM will take place on April 7/8 around Saignelégier in the Jura. On the occasion of the 40th edition of the Critérium Jurassien, the organizers promise a few surprises.
