Pays du Gier: Ballinari wins, Carron crashes
TURBULENT SM ACCIDENT Victory and the lead for Ivan Ballinari at the first start in the Skoda Fabia, an accident for defending champion Sébastien Carron in the Ford Fiesta and a brilliant performance by Thomas Schmid in the Junior SM - the Rally Pays du Gier offered plenty of variety. Even champions make mistakes, although in the case of Sébastien Carron this last happened in 2013. On [...]
Even champions make mistakes, although in Sébastien Carron's case this last happened in 2013. On Saturday, in inclement weather, the defending champion did so on the second stage of the Rally Pays du Gier in France.
After five of eight special stages, the Valais native was clearly in the lead of the entire field at the SM opener in the St-Etienne area. Without direct pressure from behind, Carron put Balbosca's Ford Fiesta R5 into a ditch after a passage with rolling gravel. Co-driver Jérôme Dégout (F) suffered minor injuries.
After that, the way was clear for Ivan Ballinari. In his first appearance with a Skoda Fabia R5, supported by his employer Amag, the man from Ticino drove prudently and did not even try to attack Carron. The runner-up of the last two years was rewarded for this.
Ballinari far ahead
Ballinari/Pianca won this rally for the third time after 2012 and 2014 and are now also the first leaders in the Swiss championship. With a gap of 2'23 and 3'31 minutes, two French teams on Citroën DS3 R5 took the places of honor on the overall winners' podium.
Cédric Althaus was lucky to survive a spin in a slippery corner on Saturday morning. As a result, the man from Neuchâtel needed a long time to regain his rhythm and confidence at the wheel of Balbosca's second Fiesta. But Althaus had already lost more time on Friday evening when his windshield fogged up.
Thus, R5 newcomer Steeves Schneeberger with the Fiesta Evo acquired by Michaël Burri unexpectedly finished second in the Swiss classification, 5'39 min behind, followed by Althaus and Jean-Marc Salomon in his private Fiesta R5. Mike Coppens retired with the new Skoda Fabia already in SS1 due to an accident.
Grandiose Thomas Schmid
Apart from the winner Ballinari, Thomas Schmid delivered the best driving performance of all the Swiss. The talented driver from St. Gallen outclassed his competitors in the Junior classification and won the R2 class for the first time in a Peugeot. 2'20 min. behind him came Jonathan Michellod in second place.
In the Clio R3T Alps Trophy, newcomer Steve Juif came to victory. Defending champion Ismaël Vuistiner had to settle for 4th place after technical problems.
In the VHC classification, Julien Camandona in the BMW E30 M3 set the tone from the start. Eddy Bérard retired after clutch damage to the Ford Escort RS.
