Chiatra - Feo Delivers its Verdict
Raphaël Astier and Denis Giraudet (Porsche 911 RS # 10) made the difference on Chiatra - Feo, the longest stage of the rally, and reach the halfway point with a 1'46" lead over Tom and Tristan Pieri (BMW M3 # 12). Behind them, the third leg from Lucciana to Propriano claimed a long list of victims: Didier Auriol, Maxime Rizzo, Christophe Casanova, the Delecours and the Fassios all endured a day to forget. In Regularity, Christophe Baillet and Jean-Marc Piret (Porsche 911 # 332) were the most precise crew and stretch their lead to 5 seconds.
Competition
From Lucciana to Propriano, the third leg crossed the island from the east coast to the Gulf of Valinco. It opened south of Bastia with the Pont de l’Enfer stage, Taglio Isolaccio - Talasani - Sainte-Lucie-de-Moriani (SS7, 14 km), which runs through Talasani, a name that resonates with the purists, before plunging down towards Moriani. On a road that was “half dry, half greasy, half damp”, Tom and Tristan Pieri (BMW M3 # 12) kicked off the day with fastest time, 4 seconds clear of Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud (Lancia Delta HF Integrale # 6) and 5 ahead of Raphaël Astier and Denis Giraudet (Porsche 911 RS # 10). The gap at the top was down to 29 seconds and the duel was on. Was the tide about to turn?
Next up was the centrepiece of the rally: SS8, Chiatra - Feo, 40.8 km through Matra and past its church of Saint-Bernardin-de-Sienne. For a long time it was unclear whether the stage would go ahead, until race control gave the green light. “We love this stage,” Didier Auriol said before the start. “These are typical Corsican roads, the kind you used to find back in the 90s.” Organiser José Andreani described it as “the decider of the rally, if there is one”, and warned: “By the end, the drivers will have suffered a bit, even though they’ll love it.” It took Raphaël Astier 28'34" to get to the end: almost half an hour of non-stop effort, in cars with H-pattern gearboxes and often no power steering. Quite a sight.
That was where the rally turned. On a road that turned out to be mostly dry, Astier delivered a masterclass: an average speed of 86 km/h, 42 seconds quicker than Thomas Argenti and Meryl Giraldo (BMW M3 # 8), 44 quicker than Julien Saunier and Frédéric Vauclare (Renault 5 Maxi Turbo # 2), who were slowed by a cracked rim, and 53 quicker than Bonato. Only fifth, the Pieris dropped 1'10" after a puncture. In a single stage, the gap at the top grew from 29 seconds to 1'39".
Chiatra - Feo also claimed its share of victims, starting with the two crews who had joined Astier on the VHC podium when they left Lucciana. Christophe Casanova and Stéphane Delleaux (Porsche 911 RS # 4) were let down by their gearbox and will restart on Friday under Super Rally rules. Maxime Rizzo and Enzo Mahinc (Porsche 911 RSR # 250) broke an oil cooler. François and Priscille Delecour (BMW M3 # 7), fifth on SS7, also failed to make it to the finish. The Fassio family had already had a tough end to the morning. Bertrand Fassio (Porsche 911 RS # 9), who led the first three legs last year, had been slowed by a puncture on Wednesday and withdrew on Thursday morning. His son Matthieu (Porsche 911 RS # 1), eighth at the start of the day, went off the road as early as SS7. He was taken to hospital in Bastia and is fine.
The afternoon took the survivors into the heart of the island, under very localised showers that turned every tyre choice into a gamble. After a 6 km climb, the descent from the Col de Sorba to Ghisoni (SS9) was run in the rain, on a road littered with pine needles. “In places you had to follow other people’s tracks,” said Astier. Saunier lost turbo boost on his R5 Maxi Turbo there. Ghisoni - Fischer (SS10, 29.2 km), still in the rain, then closed the day over the 1,289-metre Col de Verde. It brought an end to Didier Auriol and Fabrice Gordon’s day when they went off the road. The 1994 world champion is fine.
At the end of the leg, with half the rally run, Astier leads the Pieris by 1'46". Bonato holds third, 3'23" back, ahead of Saunier at 4'02" and Argenti at 5'41".
Raphaël Astier (Porsche 911 RS # 10): “Overall it was a good day for us. The first stage wasn’t easy, there wasn’t a huge amount of grip, so we were a bit careful. The long stage was dry, which was nice, and the last two were in the rain: another mix of conditions. For the weather, we rely on a lot of people around us, people at the side of the stages and the team watching the radar. But in Corsica, with such localised showers, it’s hard to make the perfect choice. Our lead means we can be a little more relaxed, but we have to be careful. The route is so long that you lose your visual memory, so the pace notes are absolutely crucial. And because we’ve never been here before, we stay a bit on the defensive, in case we’ve overrated a corner that tightens.”
Tom Pieri (BMW M3 # 12): “This Tour de Corse will go down in history, because it’s a constant headache. We lost a lot of time on Chiatra - Feo. Now we’re in no man’s land: it’s a long way to the car in front and a long way back to the car behind, so we just drove for the fun of it. It was really, really treacherous, with pine needles everywhere. In the end there was some grip, but it was very scary. Coming down in the rain, on the pine needles: that’s a proper Tour de Corse!”
Julien Saunier (Renault 5 Maxi Turbo # 2): “There was really good grip and we’d made a good start. But this year every stage seems to have something in store for us: we cracked a rim on Chiatra - Feo, and on SS9 we lost boost, either the turbo or a leak. But we’re having a great time, and that’s what it’s all about!”
VHC classification
Astier / Giraudet (Porsche 911 RS # 10) 2h28'41"
Guignard / Collinet (Renault 5 Tour de Corse # 35) +14'18"
Vivier / Garcia (Renault R5 Turbo # 28) +15'19"
Outright classification
Astier / Giraudet (Porsche 911 RS # 10) 2h28'41"
Pieri / Pieri (BMW M3 # 12) +1'46"
Bonato / Boulloud (Lancia Delta HF Integrale # 6) +3'23"
Regularity
Under the chestnut trees of the Pont de l’Enfer, through the wet hairpins climbing towards Matra and on into the laricio pines of Ghisoni, Christophe Baillet and Jean-Marc Piret (Porsche 911 # 332) were in total control on Thursday, from the first kilometre to the last. After winning RZ 7, they covered the 40.8 km of Chiatra - Feo (RZ 8) with a single tenth of a second of penalties across 16 timing points, then went clean through RZ 9. Their total for the day came to just 2.6 seconds, stretching their lead to 5 seconds over Yves Deflandre and Jennifer Hugo (Porsche 911 # 330). “Christophe was really on it today,” admitted Deflandre. “It came down to a few points in every zone, but they always went his way.”
The final zone went to a name Corsica knows well. Over the 29 km of Ghisoni - Fischer (RZ 10), across the Col de Verde, Bruno Saby and Christophe Marques (Porsche 911 SC # 356) picked up just 1.1 seconds of penalties, the best of anyone. Forty years after winning the 1986 Tour de Corse at the wheel of a Peugeot 205 T16, Saby claimed his first zone win of the week. Earlier in the day he had dropped 7 seconds at the final timing point of Chiatra - Feo. Tonight he lies eighth, 20 seconds behind Baillet.
With the roads soaked and carpeted in pine needles, race control cut the target averages by 3 to 5 km/h depending on the zone, for safety reasons. It was a lesson learned from the day before: in RZ 6, the rain had caught out the early runners before turning into a downpour for those behind, to the point that the zone was cancelled. The conditions were also a reminder of how tough life can be in the High average. “In a hairpin, being in the High average doesn’t mean you can take it any faster,” explained Deflandre, who has competed in that category himself. “They get penalised every time they accelerate out of a corner.” And in the High average, Chiatra - Feo proved cruel for Thomas Enghof and Franziska Mohr (Toyota Celica # 326), who had started the day as category leaders. “We lost the car twice in RZ 8,” said Franziska Mohr. “The first time because conditions suddenly got much worse, the second time because we were trying to make up the lost time.” More than 6 minutes of penalties, a Celica that is “pretty much destroyed” and their participation in doubt: they hand the High average lead to Jean Lacassagne and Jean-Géraud Lutran (Lancia Delta Integrale # 319). Lacassagne and Lutran put in a strong day and took a few risks along the way, as Lacassagne explained: “We drove as fast as we could! The start of the day was tough: tight corners and narrow roads, so it was hard to hold the average. We had a scare this morning too, when I braked too hard and we came very close to some low walls on a bridge. It’s quick in these conditions, but not as quick as the VHC cars (laughs).”
The day came to an abrupt halt for Jean-François Nicoules and Jérôme Dupard (Ford Escort RS 2000 # 414), who had left Lucciana in second place. Just 500 metres into RZ 7, a faulty fuel pump cut the Escort’s engine. By the time they had switched to the backup pump and re-primed the system, 15 seconds had gone, and the twisty opening 2 km gave them no chance to claw them back. More than 30 seconds of penalties dropped them to 18th. “The podium is gone,” admitted Dupard. “Now the aim is to get back into the top 10.”
Yet the Nicoules name is still on the podium. Jean-François’s son François keeps climbing with Antoine Grouillard (Renault Alpine A110 1600 S # 428). They now sit third, 10.8 seconds off the lead, and still head the Moderate average. In the Low average, the fight is down to a single second: Michel Decremer and Aswin Pyck (Alfa Romeo Giulia TI # 495), fifth overall, lead Nicolas and Philippe Loens (Morris Cooper S # 487), who dropped just three tenths in Chiatra - Feo.
Christophe Baillet (Porsche 911 # 332): “It rained on and off and the road stayed very damp and very slippery. Even with the lower averages, as soon as a corner tightened under the chestnut trees, the car started sliding straight away. Those were good conditions to make a difference. The car ran well and my co-driver did a great job. That’s another day done: we’re roughly halfway through the rally, but 5 seconds is nothing. We saw with Jean-François’s fuel pump that the mechanics can let you down at any moment. Over 5 days, reliability is everything. So far it’s holding… fingers crossed!”
Yves Deflandre (Porsche 911 # 330): “We’ve got second place back, after losing it when yesterday’s zone was cancelled. On the other hand, Christophe took 2 seconds off me. It’s good that we’re pulling away from the others, but I’d rather have been chipping away in the other direction! Race control lowered the averages for safety reasons, which doesn’t really suit me, because the tougher it gets, the more I can make a difference. Five seconds overall is both very little and quite a lot. But it’s not over yet.”
François Nicoules (Renault Alpine A110 1600 S # 428): “The stages were still greasy, with a lot of pine needles. It was really hard to clip the apexes and we had to adjust our lines. Our goal is to win the Moderate average and to aim for the overall podium.”
Regularity overall classification
Baillet / Piret (Porsche 911 # 332) 14.3 s
Deflandre / Hugo (Porsche 911 # 330) +5 s
F. Nicoules / Grouillard (Renault Alpine A110 1600 S # 428) +10.8 s
Average category leaders
High: Lacassagne / Lutran (Lancia Delta Integrale # 319)
Intermediate: Baillet / Piret (Porsche 911 # 332)
Moderate: F. Nicoules / Grouillard (Renault Alpine A110 1600 S # 428)
Low: Decremer / Pyck (Alfa Romeo Giulia TI # 495)
