Jura: Ivan Ballinari wins after a great duel
KNAPPING OUT The Critérium Jurassien lived on the duel between Skoda drivers Ivan Ballinari and Michaël Burri after Greg Hotz's early out. The champion narrowly beat last year's winner. The exciting duel of the two Skoda drivers Ivan Ballinari and Michaël Burri lasted from the first stage on Friday evening until the last SS of Saturday. After the local hero [...]
The exciting duel between the two Skoda drivers Ivan Ballinari and Michaël Burri lasted from the first special stage on Friday evening until the last SS on Saturday. After the local hero and last year's winner had set the first fastest time, the champion countered on the second SS. With tires that were too soft for the 29.12-kilometer stage, the Bernese-Jurassian lost almost 13 seconds to the Ticino native.
Early exit for Hotz
Grégoire Hotz, who was desperate to win here to improve his title chances after third place at Pays du Gier, was already out of the race at this point. The eight-time champion touched the sidewalk with his Skoda in a fast village passage and had to retire with two broken rims and bent suspension. From the start, Hotz was struggling with oversteer, which probably provoked the slip.
Ballinari extends table lead
On Saturday morning, "Bally" initially increased his lead by a further 2.5 seconds before Burri turned up the heat and reduced the gap to 4.5 seconds with six fastest times on the second stage. As the spectator stage on the edge of the paddock in Saignelégier had to be abandoned due to problems with the timekeeping, it remained that way.
For Ballinari this meant the first victory at the Critérium Jurassien. In the standings he now leads with 77 points ahead of Burri with 60 and Salomon with 46.
Luck of the draw for Schneeberger, accident for Schmidlin
After Hotz's retirement, Steeves Schneeberger established himself in third position. He would have had to relinquish this to Jean-Marc Salomon on the final spectator circuit due to a time-consuming spin, so the subsequent cancellation came just in time for him. Fifth place went to Joël Rappaz in another Ford Fiesta R5.
The race in the Jura ended unpleasantly for Ruedi Schmidlin. In SS6, the man from Basel went off the track in the Ford Fiesta S2000 driven by co-driver Erich Götte. Both drivers were able to get out of the heavily damaged car unharmed.
Bad luck for Althaus Jr.
Not competing were Nicolas Althaus (Skoda Fabia R5) and his nephew Cédric Althaus (planned to start on Peugeot 202 R2 instead of Fiesta R5), as neither could get the budget together. Nicolas therefore concentrated on the efforts of his son Sacha, who put in a great but insufficiently rewarded display in the Junior-SM. Initially clearly in the lead, a puncture on SS4 cost him a good two and a half minutes on Jonathan Michellod. At the finish, he was second, just over a minute behind the man from the Valais.
Styve Juif's second win of the season in the Clio R3T Alps Trophy was unassailable, as was Marc Valliccioni's renewed success in a BMW M3 in the VHC group, which had a superb field of 15 teams.
Detailed information: Jürg Kaufmann
