WRC - Corsica: Latvala scored his 15th career victory
Jari-Matti Latvala has won Tour de Corse -Rallye de France, 11th round of World Rally Championship. Volkswagen’s driver didn’t allow any surprises on the last day of the rally, which he started with only a 2-second advantage over Elfyn Evans (M-Sport Ford). Latvala was faster than young Welshman in all three special stages and his advantage was 43.1s at the end. Evans was in fear from Andreas Mikkelsen (Volkswagen), but he defended second place for 3.2 seconds.
On the last stage Bisinao – Agosta Plage, which was counted as Power Stage and awarded with additional points, Sebastien Ogier (Volkswagen) was the fastest, ahead of Robert Kubica and Latvala. Ogier and Kubica at least earned some points after a disappointing event with their retirements because of technical issues and punctures.
Kris Meeke (Citroen) remained fourth, ahead of Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) and Mads Ostberg (Citroen). Citroen duo brought important points to French manufacturer in the fight for 2nd place in manufacturers’ standings against Hyundai. After Thierry Neuville’s retirement on the first day, only Dani Sordo scored some points for Hyundai works team with 7th place. Two Ford privateers Bryan Bouffier and Stephane Sarrazin finished eighth and ninth respectively, in front of M-Sport driver Ott Tanak. We saw one retirement on the last day. Kevin Abbring was fifth overall when he crashed his Hyundai i20 WRC on the penultimate stage.
Winner of WRC2 class is Julien Maurin (Ford Fiesta RRC), with a 20.9s advantage over Esapekka Lappi (Škoda Fabia R5). Eric Camilli (Ford Fiesta R5) finished third, ahead of Craig Breen (Peugeot 208 T16). Quentin Gilbert is the winner of Junior WRC classification, in which all drivers drive a Citroen DS3 R3T Max. Terry Fold finished second and Yohan Rossel was third. With this win, fourth in five races, Gilbert became 2015 Junior WRC champion.
Next event in World Rally Championship is 51. RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada, scheduled for 22-25 October.
