Ignis driver Kosti Katajamaki has finished second on the all-asphalt Catalunya Rally, the final round of the Junior World Rally Championship. The similar car of Urmo Aava is fourth, in front of the Ignis of Martin Prokop in fifth and Pavel Valousek's Ignis in sixth.

Kosti Katajamaki saves the Suzuki honour with a second place

Suzuki Swift driver Guy Wilks started the rally with a slim chance of claiming the Junior World Championship title if he won the rally with Citroen's Daniel Sordo finishing eighth or lower. The Englishman finished day one in the lead, but lost his chance of the championship when he rolled on SS8 after being caught out by a slippery corner. The other Swift of P-G Andersson also crashed out of contention on the first day, but both new cars proved that they had the asphalt pace of the class-leading Citroens.
In the absence of the Swift crews, the Suzuki Ignis drivers came to the forefront. Kosti ended the opening day in third and climbed to second at the end of day two. On the final leg - characterised by dry weather and smooth roads - he maintained his pace to the finish, to score his second podium on asphalt in two weeks. The Suzuki Sport Europe driver had no mechanical problems at all throughout the three days of Catalunya: the fastest asphalt rally of the entire calendar.

"I've really enjoyed it," said the Finn, backed by two-time World Champion Marcus Gronholm. "On the second and third day it was really about looking after my advantage rather than pushing hard - although I did think that Baldacci might catch me. In any case, I was helped by an Ignis that was very easy to drive and gave me no reliability worries at all. You need a bit of luck on these asphalt rallies, particularly when you cut corners. It is very easy to pick up a puncture but luckily we managed to avoid them and we had no real problems. "

Urmo Aava was fourth, despite a fraught final day. Having made repairs to a damaged driveshaft in the morning, he accidentally forgot to release his handbrake on the road section and wore out his rear brakes on the way to the two opening stages. He had to complete these stages with no rear brakes or handbrake before getting the problem fixed at service. He also had to contend with two punctures on Friday and Saturday, which cost him a lot of time.

The Estonian, driving an Ignis run by Suzuki Sport Europe, reported: "We've been a bit unlucky on this rally and I think we would have had a good chance of the podium without all our problems. This has been a very long and difficult event for us, so we are pleased to come away with some points. We were a bit uncertain of the handling of the car earlier, but we made some set-up changes and towards the end it definitely felt better."

Czech youngster Martin Prokop scored the best result of his career with fifth place, having fulfilled his objective to learn more about the event and the car. He started off carefully but increased his speed as his confidence grew. The only problem he encountered was overheating brakes: a common complaint on the fast roads of Catalunya. "I'm delighted," he said. "This is a fantastic way to end the season and I hope I can capitalise upon all the experience I have gained this year."

After an accident on the final stage of leg two, again linked to overheating brakes, Pavel Valousek re-started leg three under the super rally system. Wanting to avoid more trouble he drove cautiously, and was rewarded with sixth place.

Suzuki Sport president Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima said: "Congratulations to Kosti and all the other Ignis drivers for a successful end to a successful season! Unfortunately we could not get either Swift to the end, but our new car has still shown enough pace on asphalt to rival the Citroens, which are the established benchmark on this surface. I am very pleased with the Swift's progress and I hope that we can continue to build on it next year."

Junior World Rally Championship final classification, Catalunya Rally:

1 Daniel Sordo (Citroen C2) 3h48m27.7s
2 Kosti Katajamaki (Suzuki Ignis) +5m00.9s
3 Mirco Baldacci (Fiat Punto) +5m22.7s
4 Urmo Aava (Suzuki Ignis) +9m48.2s
5 Martin Prokop (Suzuki Ignis) +10m38.2s
6 Pavel Valousek (Suzuki Ignis) +13m40.1s
7 Kris Meeke (Citroen C2) +21m31.8s
8 Luca Cecchettini (Fiat Punto) +48m01.5s

2005 Junior World Rally Championship points

1 Daniel Sordo (Citroen C2) 53
2 Guy Wilks (Suzuki Swift) 35
3 Kris Meeke (Citroen C2) 32
4 Urmo Aava (Suzuki Ignis) 32
5 Kosti Katajamaki (Suzuki Ignis) 31
6 P-G Andersson (Suzuki Swift) 30
7 Mirco Baldacci (Fiat Punto) 26
8 Luca Betti (Renault Clio) 17
9 Martin Prokop (Suzuki Ignis) 13
10 Luca Cecchettini (Fiat Punto) 10
11 Pavel Valousek (Suzuki Ignis) 10
12 Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen C2) 7