Rossel retains Junior WRC lead
Yohan Rossel and Laurent Pellier continued to fight tooth and nail for supremacy in the FIA Junior WRC at the Che Guevara Energy Drink Tour de Corse on Saturday with Rossel snatching the lead ahead of Sunday’s finale.
Rossel led on Friday night but Pellier grabbed top spot in Saturday's opening stage. Rossel then reduced the deficit to his fellow Frenchman to five seconds during the second speed test on bumpy mountain roads near Bastia.
He stunned Pellier by winning the afternoon’s opening special stage by almost 15sec to move ahead before further asserting his authority by winning the final test to lead in his Citroën DS 3 by 14.9sec.
Fastest time in the second stage helped Martin Koci retain third but the Slovakian was more than 1min 40sec behind the flying Rossel.
Series leader Simone Tempestini was Koci’s closest challenger before dropping three minutes with a penultimate stage puncture. He retained fourth with Terry Folb and Vincent Dubert completing the top six.
Dubert punctured this morning and then retired this afternoon when his car lost all power, but he is expected to restart tomorrow.
Mohamed Al Mutawaa crashed in the opening stage after brake failure, his car plunging down a ravine and catching fire. Neither he nor co-driver Stuart Loudon were injured but the car burned out. Romain Martel also crashed out in the penultimate stage.
