Rally Corsica 2011

The 2011 Tour de Corse was the 54th edition of the Tour de Corse and the third round of the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge . The rally took place on the French island of Corsica from May 12-14, 2011 .

background

The rally was a tour over a large part of Corsica and led over paved roads. The rally started in Calvi in the northwest of the island, passed through Corte and ended in Ajaccio . The program consisted of 14 special stages, two on the first day and six on the second and third day. However, one special stage was canceled. Instead of 320.84 kilometers as planned, only 297.6 kilometers were counted. The total distance including connecting stages was 1161.95 kilometers.

The championship leader, Juho Hänninen , did not take part in the rally. The Subaru Impreza R4 made its first appearance in an IRC rally and was driven by Toshihiro Arai . 48 vehicles started.

course

Thierry Neuville won the two special stages on the first day in the Kronos- Peugeot. At the end of the day he was in the lead 8.9 seconds ahead of Škoda works driver Jan Kopecký .

On SS3 Neuville lost a large part of his lead after a spin, which was then only 1.4 seconds over the new runner-up, Bryan Bouffier . In SS4 Bouffier achieved the best time and took the lead. Guy Wilks , who was previously in third place, was forced to retire after an accident on this stage. On SS5, Bouffier had a puncture and he lost over a minute, dropping him to sixth place overall. Thus Neuville got the leadership back. The sixth special stage was overshadowed by a serious accident between Ari Vatanen and his son Max in the vehicle in front, a Peugeot 207 RC. The test was therefore canceled. In the afternoon Neuville brought the action back under his control and achieved the best times on SS7 and SS8. At the end of the day he was already 23.4 seconds ahead of Kopecký. Freddy Loix and Andreas Mikkelsen were only a few seconds behind Kopecký and a close battle for places on the podium developed.

Kopecký set a high pace on SS9, the first stage on the third day, and reduced his gap to 14.5 seconds. In the following three stages, Neuville didn't let his pursuer get any closer and again achieved three best times. A puncture on SS12 cost Mikkelsen over three minutes. Thus he lost his chances of third place and he fell back to eighth place in the overall standings. Behind Loix in fourth place was the surprisingly strong local hero Pierre Campana , who fought a close duel with Bouffier. On the last two stages, Neuville took things a little slower and managed his lead. Kopecký, however, did not come close. On the final SS14, Bouffier had a difficult flight into the bushes, as a result of which the competition was over for him. Campana lost over two and a half minutes due to a puncture, but was able to defend his fourth place thanks to the large lead over his pursuers.

Neuville won the rally with a 15.5 second lead over Kopecký in second and 1: 02.6 minutes ahead of Loix in third. The young Belgian celebrated his first win in the IRC and at the age of 22 became the youngest winner of an IRC rally to date. Pierre-Antoine Guglielmi won the 2WD classification , Florian Gonon won the production car . A total of 31 vehicles reached the destination. The championship now led Loix with five points ahead of Neuville and Kopecký.

Results

Overall rating

Item	driver	Co-driver	vehicle	total time	Residue	Points
1	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Peugeot 207 S2000	3: 20: 51.0		25th
2	Jan Kopecký	Petr Starý	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 21: 06.5	15.5	18th
3	Freddy Loix	Frédéric Miclotte	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 21: 53.6	1: 02.6	15th
4th	Pierre Campana	Sabrina De Castelli	Peugeot 207 S2000	3: 24: 50.1	3: 59.1	12
5	Bruno Magalhães	Paulo Grave	Peugeot 207 S2000	3: 25: 19.2	4: 28.2	10
6th	Andreas Mikkelsen	Ola Fløene	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 25: 21.1	4: 30.1	8th
7th	Julien Maurin	Olivier Ural	Ford Fiesta S2000	3: 25: 24.3	4: 33.3	6th
8th	Toni Gardemeister	Tapio Suominen	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 27: 24.3	6: 33.3	4th
9	Patrik Sandell	Staffan Parmander	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 29: 19.8	8: 28.8	2
10	Jean-Mathieu Leandri	Pierre-Marien Leonardi	Peugeot 207 S2000	3: 30: 32.5	9: 41.5	1

Special stages

Day	WP	Time	Surname	length	winner	time	Speed	Overall leader
Day 1 (May 12th)	SS1	14:03	Le Fangu - Notre Dame de la Serra 1	27.53 km	Thierry Neuville	16: 10.3	102.14 km / h	Thierry Neuville
	SS2	16:56	Le Fangu - Notre Dame de la Serra 2	27.53 km	Thierry Neuville	15: 57.7	103.49 km / h
Day 2 (May 13th)	SS3	9:10	Erbajolo - Pont d'Altiani 1	25.15 km	Guy Wilks	15: 10.1	99.48 km / h
	SS4	10:58	Barchetta - La Porta 1	23.24 km	Bryan Bouffier	15: 32.8	89.69 km / h	Bryan Bouffier
	SS5	12:06	Taverna - Pont de Castirla 1	15.28 km	Thierry Neuville	9: 09.8	100.05 km / h	Thierry Neuville
	SS6	15:09	Barchetta - La Porta 2	23.24 km	Special test canceled
	SS7	16:17	Taverna - Pont de Castirla 2	15.28 km	Thierry Neuville	9: 07.6	100.45 km / h
	SS8	17:40	Erbajolo - Pont d'Altiani 2	25.15 km	Thierry Neuville	15: 06.6	99.87 km / h
Day 3 (May 14th)	SS9	9:10	Sarrola - Plage du Liamone 1	26.70 km	Jan Kopecký	17: 29.4	91.60 km / h
	SS10	10:43	Marato - Acqua Doria 1	22.47 km	Thierry Neuville	13: 15.6	101.67 km / h
	SS11	13:47	Bocognano - Bastelica 1	20.05 km	Thierry Neuville	13: 24.7	89.70 km / h
	SS12	15:10	Marato - Acqua Doria 2	22.47 km	Thierry Neuville	13: 13.3	101.97 km / h
	SS13	18:48	Bocognano - Bastelica 2	20.05 km	Jan Kopecký	13: 19.2	90.32 km / h
	SS14	20:10	Sarrola - Plage du Liamone 2	26.70 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	17: 30.4	91.51 km / h

Web links

• Official website
• Results on eWRC-results.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Subaru R4 debut mixed (Rallye-Magazin.de on May 15, 2011)
2. ↑ Corsica: Neuville at the beginning (Motorsport-Total.com on May 12, 2011)
3. ↑ Neuville expands tour on Corsica (Motorsport-Total.com on May 13, 2011)
4. ↑ Corsica: Neuville makes IRC history (Motorsport-Total.com on May 14, 2011)