JWRC: Citroen C2 Rally Deutschland leg two summary

Leg 2: Martin Prokop maintains the lead and Rautenbach in third

The mist that greeted the dawn over the Mosel mountains did not at all bother the Citroen drivers, who once more figure amongst the frontrunners starting with Martin Prokop and his C2 Super 1600. The Czech still leads at the end of leg two, while Yoann Bonato continues to head up the C2-R2 category thanks to a fast and consistent drive.

The two loops of four stages smiled upon the Czech driver Prokop, who has hung onto his advantage at the front of the Junior classification. After a slowish start on the opening stage of the day, Martin got the hammer down on the remaining stages. Nonetheless, he struggled slightly to find a perfect feeling with the car and this prevented him from taking a clean sweep of all the stages wins as he had done the day before. He still dominates the Junior classification though, with a 53.5 second lead over his closest rival. Just as was the case yesterday, Conrad Rautenbach's C2 run by PH Sport finished third. On the opening stages, the Zimbabwean had an uncertain feeling with his brake pedal, which cost him a few tenths of a second. At the end of the leg, he is more than a minute in front of the final Citroen C2 Super 1600 of Aaron Burkart. The German said: " I'm pleased to have avoided punctures today, which wasn't the case last year when I had two punctures in the same stage ! " Unfortunately, the German driver has experienced some problems on his car with a connection to the battery and has checked in service late tonight.

Yoann Bonato once more leads the Citroen C2-R2 classification after today's 164.86 competitive kilometres. Having identified the problem that affected him yesterday (which was differential related) Yoann felt more comfortable on today's stages. He finished sixth amongst the Juniors, just nine seconds behind the fifth-placed man. Irishman Shaun Gallagher continued to steer clear of trouble and ended up 10th.

Both Kronos Junior Team drivers were unlucky and hit problems at the end of the leg. Gilles Schammel picked up a puncture on
rena Panzerplatte 1' (SS10) and then ran out of fuel on the road section. He will start tomorrow under the SupeRally system, from 13th. Behind him Raphael Auquier retired after going off the road and he too will re-start on the final leg. Stefano Benoni started this morning's action thanks to SupeRally, and he climbed to 15th place following a faultless drive. At the end of the day, a puncture led to some brake problems and concluded in the crew having to stop for the leg and restart tomorrow in Superally.

Raphael Auquier (B)
Co-driver Cedric Pirotte (B)
(Citroen C2-R2)

"The day got off to a tricky start for me, with a bad tyre choice causing me a lack of grip on the stages. My race was over on SS11, where I had a spin after a braking area and went off the road. We damaged the front of the car slightly but it had no real technical problems. Tomorrow I will start again under the SupeRally system to increase my asphalt experience."

Stefano Benoni (I)
Co-driver Enrico Cantoni (I)
(Citroen C2-R2)

"We drove very carefully today, knowing the difficulty of the special stages. We tried pushing a few times, but at the back of our mind was the fact that we had to protect our Citroen C2-R2 for the two asphalt rallies that remain."

Yoann Bonato (F)
Co-driver Benjamin Boulloud (F)
(Citroen C2-R2)

"I got going again this morning still with a few brake problems, as I expected after yesterday. But when we changed the gearbox at lunchtime, we realised that we had a broken differential. The day's stages were quite tricky in places and I had a scare with an overshoot that made me lose some time. I'm generally happy with today, which I enjoyed a bit more than yesterday."

Aaron Burkart (DE)
Co-driver Michael Kolbach (DE) (Citroen C2 Super 1600)

"Some parts of the stages this morning were very slippery, which caused us a few big slides, but we managed to stay on top of our C2 Super 1600. Above all, I'm happy to avoid the punctures that affected me last year."

Shaun Gallagher (EI)
Co-driver Clive Jenkins (GB)
(Citroen C2-R2)

"I found myself caught by surprise during the first loop of stages by some slippery sections and some stones in the middle of the road, but on the whole today went well for me. The stages in the afternoon were good fun, and I'm quite pleased with my overall place in the classification."

Martin Prokop (CZ)
Co-driver Jan Tomanek (CZ)
(Citroen C2 Super 1600)

"Today's leg wasn't quite as satisfying for me as yesterday's. I wasn't very quick to get into these stages for some reason, and I made a few small driving errors. Nonetheless, I'm very happy to lead the Juniors again tonight with a healthy lead over Urmo Aava and that makes me confident for tomorrow."

Conrad Rautenbach (ZW)
Co-driver David Senior (GB)
(Citroen C2 Super 1600)

"I really enjoyed the leg today. This morning I had a bad feel with the brake pedal but as time went on it got better. I'm just pleased to get to the end of all the stages on the Baumholder military ranges ! I'm also pleased to occupy the position that I do this evening."

Gilles Schammel (L)
Co-driver Renaud Jamoul (B)
(Citroen C2-R2)

"I had a lot of fun on the first two stages. Everything was going well but on the final stage of the morning we ran out of luck. First we had a puncture, and then on the road section we ran out of petrol. We're really disappointed it seems not to be our yeat. We will re-start under SupeRally tomorrow, but obviously we face a big time penalty." <pre> Junior classification at end of leg two, Rallye Deutschland

 1.  M. Prokop/J. Tomanek       Citroen C2 Super 1600   3h 08 min 27,5 s
 2.  U. Aava/K. Sikk            Suzuki Swift                    + 53,5 s
 3.  C. Rautenbach/D. Senior    Citroen C2 Super 1600     + 2 min 43,2 s
 4.  A. Burkart/M. Kolbach      Citroen C2 Super 1600     + 4 min 16,6 s
 5.  J. Molder/K. Becker        Suzuki Swift              + 8 min 23,4 s
 6.  Y. Bonato/B. Boulloud      Citroen C2-R2             + 8 min 32,4 s
 7.  J. Beres/ P. Stary         Renault Clio              + 9 min 05,3 s
 8.  A. Pars/K. Jarveoja        Suzuki Swift             + 11 min 40,8 s
 9.  K. Pinomaki/T. Nikkola     Renault Clio             + 12 min 46,9 s
10.  S. Gallagher/C. Jenkins    Citroen C2-R2            + 14 min 20,9 s

-credit: citroen