ERC: Rallye du Valais / Rally review
Breen started of in command but after a check-in error dropped back.
59/64
Contenders
The only one with anything really left to play for
was Craig Breen. By scoring 27 points he could
still overhaul Bryan Bouffier to claim the runnerup spot in the ERC standings. Not the biggest
prize, but definitely something worth fighting for.
Breen also wanted to finish strong after some
disappointing results on the last couple of rallies.
Meanwhile Esapekka Lappi was feeling very confident after his solid showing in Sanremo. The
young Finn had a very steady run, keeping his
foot a bit too far off the throttle to his liking. Eventually he was rewarded with second though. He
looked to go one better in Switzerland and claim
his first ERC win.
A remarkably similar scenario unfolded for Ancian who joined led after the first stage but
then also made a check-in error.
The two favourites would not get anything easy
though. Seasoned veteran Olivier Burri first won
the Rally du Valais back in 1993 and went on to
do so another seven times. He had the material
to do some damage too in the form of a Ford
Fiesta RRC. His local knowledge being a mayor
benefit of course as well. After clincing the Production Group title in Sanremo, Andreas Aigner
was both on a high and relieved of the championship battle burden. He was free to go out and
push, and he would do just that and then some!
Someone who has shown glimpses of good pace
this year, but never quite seemed to get all the
pieces of the puzzle in the right place is Jeremy
Ancian. The Frenchman had already contested
five other ERC events this year but couldn’t yet
better a fifth place, would this be his rally?
Drama
The short opening leg consisted of three stages
around the town of Sion. Breen and Ancian were
both right on the pace and set equal fastest time
on the first stage. On the next stage Ancian was
slightly blinded by the low sun giving Breen the
chance to claim the lead for his own. Ancian took
back some time on the next stage seemingly
setting things up for a nice battle between the
two. Disaster loomed for both teams though as
somehow they both managed to check-in early
to stage three. Breen got a two minute time penalty while Ancian even got three minutes of extra
time added to his total.