Chablais: Carron in a class of his own in the Polo

What a performance by the 41-year-old from Valais on his return to the Swiss Rally Championship! After the six special stages of Friday's first leg, Sébastien Carron, navigated by his friend Lucien Revaz, was already more than a minute ahead of Jérémie Toedtli in the fastest Skoda Fabia R5 in a Volkswagen Polo R5 that he was experiencing on Swiss soil for the first time.

After the technical retirement of Cédric Althaus in another VW Polo (fire hazard due to overpressure in the fuel system - apparently a general problem with this model) on Friday evening, the man from Neuchâtel remained Carron's first pursuer. While the three-time rally champion had after all practiced at an Italian rally in April (second overall and R5 winner), the Rallye du Chablais was Toedtli's first race appearance since the Valais finale in October 2018.

Eleven of 14 SP best times to Carron
After eight best times in a row and a lead of almost 77 seconds, Carron slowed down a bit on Saturday and left two SS best times to Toedtli. After that, the VW team moved back to the top of the timesheets on the following three special stages before Toedtli set another fastest time on the final SS.

With a lead of 80.2 seconds after the 175 SS kilometers, Carron/Revaz were celebrated as the superior and deserved winners of the 16th edition of the race in the Chablais region of Vaud and the Valais. After 2015 and 2016 Carron's third success in this event, for the Volkswagen brand the first ever SM race victory in decades.

Pointing to his right foot, Carron explained one of the reasons for his successful comeback.

Sébastien Carron: "I like these stages here. After all, I was able to duel for victory with Sébastien Loeb here two years ago. And with the VW Polo, you just notice that it's a very modern, newly developed R5 car."

Drama in the fight for third place
Starting from SS5 in third position, Michaël Burri had to park his Skoda Fabia at the side of the track six kilometers before the finish of the last SS with a broken wishbone on the right front axle. Thus, the two days pale defending champion Ivan Ballinari, who this time did not feel as comfortable as usual in the Skoda Fabia, unexpectedly came in third, one and a half minutes behind Toedtli. After Burri's retirement, the SM points are all the more valuable as the Ticino driver now extends his lead in the standings.

Joël Rappaz's Ford Fiesta R5 also fell victim to a defect in the final kilometers. Olivier Gillet retired after 12 of the 14 stages with technical problems on the Porsche GT3 rented in Germany.

Thus, fourth place overall went to another SM returnee, Pascal Perroud - with a lead of just two tenths of a second over Frenchman Jérémy Cretien in another Skoda Fabia R5.

Many failures and problems in the midfield
Jean-Marc Salomon finished sixth in his private Fiesta. With 5th place in the SM standings, the all-rounder from the Jura moves up to second place in the standings. All other of the twelve starting R5 teams remained on the track or fell far behind like Jonathan Scheidegger in the Citroën DS3 (37th).

As all competitors from the Clio R3T Alps Trophy also experienced problems during the third SM round (victory for Ismaël Vuistiner with a 1.3 second lead over Nicolas Lathion), Aurelien Devanthéry in a Peugeot 208 R2 was the best classified non-R5 driver at the end. He also won the classification for the Trophée Michelin Suisse.

When will Carron be back?
In the Junior Rally, Jonathan Michellod's victory over Sacha Althaus (both Peugeot 208 R2) by 72.2 seconds was as clear as that of Marc Valliccioni in the BMW M3 in Group VHC and of Sébastien Carron in the overall classification.

He leaves it open where he will appear next. The only thing that's certain is that the road to victory will continue to lead through Carron, no matter where he competes.

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