JWRC: Citroen Tour de Corse leg two summary

Leg 2 : The Citroen drivers dominate

The second leg of the 51st Rallye de France Tour de Corse was once more dominated by the Citroen drivers. The two loops of three stages were held under sunny skies. In total, 122.94 competitive kilometres were scheduled for leg two. Martin Prokop has emerged from the day in the overall Junior lead, while Yoann Bonato set all the fastest stage times.

From the second stage of the day, Martin Prokop was able to preserve his lead. The Czech, who took the lead again after his closest rivals hit problems, maintained a good rhythm throughout the leg. Conrad Rautenbach claimed third place. The PH Sport driver managed to find a better rhythm today, ensuring that he finished on the provisional podium of the final Junior round this year. A few seconds behind him, Yoann Bonato continued to adapt himself to the C2 Super 1600. He set fastest time on all six of the stages that made up the leg and finished fourth at the end of the day, 37 seconds behind Rautenbach. Aaron Burkart, who lost a lot of time in the morning after going off the road, occupies a provisional ninth place.

In the C2-R2 category, Stefano Benoni who was second yesterday took advantage of the retirement of Vilius Rozukas (gearbox on SS7) to take the category lead. The Italian continued his strong performance of the previous day to take 10th overall amongst the Juniors with more than a three-minute cushion over Raphael Auquier. It's a comfortable margin that could give him his first win in the category. Having experienced gearbox problems during the first loop of stages, Raphael Auquier ends the leg considerably behind, with some steering difficulties as well. Gilles Schammel has retired, having not started today's leg as a consequence of engine damage yesterday.

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

" This morning we were very disappointed by the gearbox problems we encountered. At midday service everything was fixed, but on the first stage of the second loop we had a puncture that cost us even more time. After that, I really struggled to hold the car on the correct line. We're going to make sure that our C2-R2 is properly fixed for the start of the final leg tomorrow. "

Stefano Benoni (I)
Co-driver Alessandro Mari (I)
(Citroen C2-R2)

" As was the case yesterday, this leg went very well for us. The car was excellent and our feeling with it got better on every stage. We're pleased with our position at the end of this leg and we're going to carry on consolidating our place tomorrow. With more than three minutes over Auquier, we don't have a lot to fear from the final day : it's just down to us to be careful now. "

Yoann Bonato (F)
Co-driver Benjamin Boulloud (F)
(Citroen C2 Super 1600)

" We've drawn a very positive conclusion from today. We've set all the fastest stage times and I hope we have a chance of getting onto the podium. We've made a few mistakes but nothing too serious. We will start off feeling confident tomorrow as we know a bit about the stages that are on the itinerary. Now we need to continue our progress in order to seal that all-important podium. "

Aaron Burkart (D)
Co-driver Michael Koelbach (D)
(Citroen C2 Super 1600)

" Unfortunately we went off the road this morning. The radiator was damaged and so our C2 overheated for the rest of the stage. We were able to fix the car at service and we set off strongly for the second loop. The afternoon stages went well, despite a few worries we had about the chassis : the car just wasn't turning in as we wanted it to do ! We'll see what we can do about that problem at service. "

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

" Today's stages were more difficult than those of the opening leg. The rocks on the road meant that we had to be careful and I felt that I wasn't performing at my best. I'm pleased thay I managed to get my lead back after our rivals hit problems, but I'm not entirely satisfied by the circumstances under which it happened. Tomorrow I'm going to try and keep up a good pace in order to seal the last Junior win of the season. "

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

" The second leg went better than the first. We've still got problems with the roadholding. Sometimes we go nice and cleanly, and at other times the C2 doesn't quite handle the way we would like it to. So we're finding it hard to find the right settings to keep the correct line. I want to go quickly to keep my place, but that is also leading me to make mistakes. Tomorrow I am going to try and keep my place in the classification and end up on the podium. " <pre> Junior Championship classification: Rallye de France Tour de Corse at end of leg two

 1. M. Prokop/J. Tomanek (Citroen C2 Super 1600)       2h 37 min 17,6 s
 2. J. Beres/ P. Stary (Renault Clio)                          + 34,9 s
 3. C. Rautenbach/D. Senior (Citroen C2 Super 1600)      + 1 min 11,4 s
 4. Y. Bonato/B. Boulloud (Citroen C2 Super 1600)        + 1 min 48,7 s
 5. P-G Andersson/J. Andersson (Suzuki Swift)            + 2 min 31,0 s
 6. A. Augoyard/X. Panseri (Renault Clio)                + 4 min 40,4 s
 7. M. Kosciuszko/M. Szczepaniak (Renault Clio)          + 5 min 10,9 s
 8. A. Cortinovis/F. Zanella (Renault Clio)              + 5 min 35,3 s
 9. A. Burkart/M. Kolbach (Citroen C2 Super 1600)        + 6 min 29,2 s
10. S. Benoni/A. Mari (Citroen C2-R2)                   + 10 min 48,7 s
11. R. Auquier/C. Pirotte (Citroen C2-R2)               + 14 min 43,0 s

-credit: citroen.com