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2003 FIA Junior World Rally Championship
Round 7 - Wales Rally GB (06-09 November)
Sunday 09 November 2003 - Final
SUZUKI TAKES TOP RESULT
IN BRITAIN
Daniel Carlsson/Mattias Andersson |
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Suzuki driver Daniel Carlsson has won the Rally Great Britain,
the final round of the Junior World Rally Championship.
Ville-Pertti Teuronen and Salvador Canellas have
finished third and fourth respectively, but Urmo Aava was
unfortunately forced to retire this morning with driveshaft
failure.
The result means that Salvador finishes the season
second overall in the 2003 Junior World Championship, while
Daniel finishes third. Urmo Aava finishes the year fourth
and Ville-Pertti Teuronen has ended up sixth.
Britain is usually characterised by rain, mud
and bad weather. But unusually for south Wales, conditions
have remained dry throughout all three days of the event.
The dry weather meant that there were several loose stones
on the road surfaces, which made conditions even more slippery
than usual. The Junior World Championship runners rely on
only two-wheel drive, which made their cars even more difficult
to control than usual.
Today's final leg consisted of only three stages,
totalling 89 competitive kilometres with only one service
halt.
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V-P.Teuronen/Mikko Markkula
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Salvador Canellas/Xavier Amigo
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Urmo Aava/Kuldar Sikk
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Our teams in action
Suzuki Ignis number 52 - Daniel Carlsson
(S)/Mattias Andersson (S)
1st after leg three
Daniel Carlsson/Mattias Andersson |
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Daniel had a fault-free
final day to take victory on the Rally Great Britain - his second
win of the season. He started the day in the lead, so was able
to control his advantage over the final three stages. The Swede's
Suzuki Ignis was utterly reliable all day, and he enjoyed his
final run in Suzuki's Super 1600 team. Next year he has been
recruited to drive a factory World Rally Car for another champion
manufacturer: the source of a lot of pride for Suzuki.
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Daniel Carlsson |
He said: "This is the perfect way
to end what has been an absolutely fantastic season for both
myself and Suzuki. The car has given us no problems throughout
the rally - in fact it's been fantastically reliable all year,
and the experience has set me up well for the future. I came
into this event with a lot of confidence as I knew the car would
be very good in these tricky conditions. That absolutely turned
out to be the case and I've really enjoyed myself. I just want
to thank everyone who made this amazing season possible."
Suzuki Ignis number 64 - Ville-Pertti
Teuronen (FIN)/Mikko
Markkula (FIN)
3rd after leg three
Ville-Pertti Teuronen |
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Ville-Pertti started today locked in a fierce battle for fourth
with his team mate Urmo Aava. But this came to a swift end after
Aava retired in the morning. Ville-Pertti drove carefully towards
the finish in order to maintain his podium place: his debut
podium in the Junior World Championship.
He said: "It's been a good rally but
today was a tricky day for us as we really had to concentrate.
We've come so far and done so well on this rally, so I really
didn't want to throw everything away now. Today's stages were
quite demanding, and I would say that this rally is a fantastic
challenge for any driver. The conditions were so slippery
that it was a constant battle to stay on the road. I'm absolutely
delighted to finish on the podium."
Suzuki Ignis number 69 - Salvador Canellas
(E)/Xavier Amigo (E)
4th after leg three
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Salvador Canellas |
Salvador had a good run through today's stages to notch up yet
another solid result. His Ignis had no mechanical problems and
he drove carefully to be sure of reaching the finish. Salvador
came into the rally with an outside chance of winning the Junior
World Championship, but he just missed out at the finish.
He said: "I'm very happy with the way
that this rally has gone. It's not been entirely straightforward,
as we had some gearbox problems on the first day that cost
us time. Also, when we changed the gearbox, we picked up some
additional time in road penalties. It wasn't an easy rally
for me to get to grips with, as these are not conditions I'm
really used to."
Suzuki Ignis number 71 - Urmo Aava (EE)/Kuldar
Sikk (EE)
retired
Urmo Aava |
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Urmo started today fifth, just behind his
team mate Ville-Pertti Teuronen. He had a good clean run through
the first stage of the day and was confident that he would be
able to attack. But a driveshaft failure before SS17 meant that
his promising run was cruelly halted so close to the finish.
He said: "I'm really disappointed as
we were doing very well and I was quite confident of finishing
in a strong position. To come so close yet so far to the end
is very difficult to accept. But looking on the positive side
we've learnt an awful lot from this rally that will be vital
for the future. The Suzuki has proved to be a truly front-running
car and I'd like to thank everybody who has helped me so much
all year."
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Risto Laine |
Monster Sport Europe team manager
Risto Laine commented: "We're very happy to score
our second win of the season, after what's been a very successful
year. We've had seven rallies, eight podium finishes and two
wins, so we can't complain at all! Of course it would have
been nice to have won the championship as well, but it speaks
a lot about our car and our drivers that we came so close.
It's a real shame that Urmo had to retire; other than that
it's been a really good rally. Well done to everyone, and
we're all looking forward to next year!"
The Junior World Rally Championship starts up again next year from January 23-25 on the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally.
Today in JWRC
Daniel Carlsson started the day in the lead and maintained it to the finish. Opel driver Kris Meeke was second, but rolled out of the rally on the penultimate stage, promoting Fiat's Mirco Baldacci to second. Ville-Pertti Teuronen finished third for Suzuki.
Suzuki versus rivals
SS16 Rhondda 1 (29.70km)
Fastest JWRC: Kris Meeke (Opel) 18m27.2s
Carlsson (2nd fastest): 18m33.6s
Teuronen (4th fastest): 18m46.7s
Canellas (6th fastest): 19m41.2s
Aava (5th fastest): 18m49.9s
SS17 Rhondda 2 (29.70km)
Fastest JWRC: Daniel Carlsson (Suzuki) 18m24.9s
Teuronen (3rd fastest): 19m05.5s
Canellas (4th fastest): 20m09.5s
Aava: retired before stage, driveshaft
SS18 Margam Park 2 (30.30km)
Fastest JWRC: Daniel Carlsson (Suzuki) 8m09.4s
Teuronen (5th fastest) 9m18.1s
Canellas (6th fastest) 9m31.5s
Junior World Championship classification, Sanremo Rally,
end of leg three:
1 Daniel Carlsson (Suzuki Ignis) 3h57m29.8s
2 Mirco Baldacci (Fiat Punto) 3h59m04.2s
3 Ville-Pertti Teuronen (Suzuki Ignis) 4h04m51.6s
4 Salvador Canellas (Suzuki Ignis) 4h14m50.3s
5 Alessandro Broccoli (Opel Corsa) 4h20m58.2s
6 Massimo Ceccato (Fiat Punto) 4h24m25.8
JWRC Championship classification after round 7 Wales Rally
GB :
1 Brice Tirabassi (Renault) 38
2 Salvador Canellas (Suzuki) 36
3 Daniel Carlsson (Suzuki) 33
4 Mirco Baldacci (Fiat) 20
5 Urmo Aava (Suzuki) 20
6 Ville-Pertti Teuronen (Suzuki) 19
7 Guy Wilks (Ford) 18
8 Alessandro Broccoli (Opel) 13
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