Chablais: Two world champions ride ahead

The third round of the Swiss Rally Championship will produce a new overall winner. Unless a miracle happens, SM leader Ivan Ballinari will be missing, although he is on the list of participants with start number #1.

The Ticino native suffered from a disc hernia and underwent surgery last week. This went well, but in all likelihood it will prevent him from competing.

Carron as coach of Althaus
Sébastien Carron, who had a great fight with record world champion Sébastien Loeb last year, has resigned. At Chablais, last year's champion is acting as coach to Cédric Althaus for the first time. If "Bally" is indeed absent, he will take to the track with #2 on the Ford Fiesta as the first R5 driver.

Michaël Burri, the most recent winner of the Critérium Jurassien, is taking a break from rallying, as announced. Althaus therefore slips into the role of favorite, which Mike Coppens is most likely to dispute. In the Jura, Coppens was ahead of the Vaudois at times with the Skoda Fabia R5.

Steeves Schneeberger, surprising second in the first R5 event in mid-March in France (Pays du Gier), Jean-Marc Salomon and Joël Rappaz are the other contenders for the overall podium, all on a Ford Fiesta R5.

Rappaz, who normally drives a Fiesta S2000, is driving in his home race in the Balbosca team (like Carron and now Althaus). It's only logical that he's aiming for a top result, since he knows all the special stages practically by heart. The only question is how well he will be able to cope with an R5 car right from the start.

Thomas Schmid wants to know again
Back on the Swiss rally scene is Marc Valliccioni, a Corsican who has made Fully his home, in his sonorous Porsche 997 GT3 R-GT. None of the aforementioned, except Ballinari, has ever taken a Swiss overall victory.

So it is quite possible that one of the fastest drivers from the Clio R3T Alps Trophy and the Junior-SM (for R2 cars) will also make it onto the big podium. Jean-Philippe Radoux in the Mitsubishi Evo IX R4 is also likely to do so. Gérard Nicolas would have the car to do so in the Ford Focus WRC, but never pushes the collector's item to the limit.

Of the best-known German-Swiss teams, only Thomas Schmid and Cornel Frigoli are in the Peugeot 208 R2. After the engine failure in Jura, they questioned the continuation of the Rallye-SM, now the winners of Gier try again to keep up with the top in the Junior-SM. If this does not succeed, Schmid will probably concentrate on the Berg-SM Junior.

Two ex-world champions for the small anniversary
With its 15th staging, the organizers around rally director Eric Jordan are celebrating a small anniversary. Although the race is part of the FIA Alpine Rally Trophy, there are no foreigners in the competition - apart from the French in the Clio Trophy and an Italian team in a Peugeot 208 R2. Instead, there are two stars as advance drivers.

Finn Ari Vatanen will drive ahead of the VHC field consisting of eleven historic cars with start number H0 on a BMW M3 E30. And Sébastien Loeb will do so with #0 on a Peugeot 306 Maxi to the modern field. Although they drive out of competition, they will undoubtedly show their rally coast.

Rally center in Aigle
As in 2017, the rally center will be in Aigle. After a shakedown early on Friday morning, the 2018 Rallye du Chablais will start at 11.08 a.m. on Friday, June 1, with SS1 over the Col de la Croix. Easily accessible for spectators is the SS Les Avants in the upper part of Montreux with starts at 13.08 (SS3) and 18.05 (SS6).

On Saturday, four stages, which are also relatively accessible, will be run twice each. The finish is at 18.25 in the Halle des Glariers in Aigle.

All important information is available on the Internet and on site.

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