A "good" result for Proton

The PROTON Motorsports team enjoyed a manufacturers’ point-scoring result from both Satria Neo S2000s on the Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Ingles, the second round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which finished in Las Palmas this afternoon.

The Gran Canarian event was the first time Giandomenico Basso and P-G Andersson had driven the car on a pure asphalt rally – it was also double FIA European Rally Champion Basso’s competitive debut with the Malaysian manufacturer. And both drivers impressed on the twisty asphalt island roads. Basso ended the event in ninth place, pleased with the pace and potential the PROTON is showing. The Italian won an entertaining battle with former Ford World Rally Championship star Toni Gardemeister, who was making his debut in a Skoda, last year’s IRC champion car.

The passionate Spanish rally fans turned out in force to cheer the PROTON Motorsports team on through what is Gran Canaria’s biggest rally of the season. The all-asphalt event turned out to be a close-fought affair, despite the tough and demanding scheduled, which included some stages run in the dark.

Andersson’s rally didn’t get off to the best of starts with a half-spin on the opening stage, but things deteriorated rapidly when he was forced to stop and change a front-right puncture on the fifth stage, only to suffer a deflation on the right-rear further into the test. He crawled out of the stage with significant tyre damage. The Swede’s hopes of the top-10 finish he’d come to Gran Canaria looking for now looked doubtful, but the two-time Junior World Rally Champion battled on and set plenty of impressive times in the warm and sunny conditions. Unable to make up the minutes lost due to the punctures, Andersson ended the event in 16th place.

Both PROTONs ran without any mechanical faults, mirroring the strong reliability and durability they showed to win the opening round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, the Malaysian Rally with Chris Atkinson a fortnight ago.

Giandomenico Basso said: “I think we did a good job. And now, after the race, we sit down at a table and we speak about something to do to improve the car. We have to do a test to improve the speed of the car, but we know that it can be better in the future. We don’t know the car, so at this moment this is the right result for this car. It is a positive result to start with the new team. It was good to work with the team, we are happy with the feeling inside the team, it’s nice.”

P-G Andersson said: “Maybe not the result we would have wanted after the punctures, but we have seen the potential of this car now. We have good parts on the car and with more work we can get the car quicker in the chassis. We still we have work to do with the engine, but the chassis has much more potential now. We were short of testing before and we did most of the testing on the rally. The double puncture was a real blow. That caused more problems after as well: it lost a little confidence in the driving and I didn’t let the car do the work properly. For sure without the puncture we could have been closer to [Giandomenico] Basso, maybe in the points. The Ukraine is next for me and I like to get to know new places. Also the other drivers [in the IRC] haven’t been there either, so this is going to be a big advantage. From what I’ve heard, the roads can be quite bumpy there, but I like this kind of road, it suits me better.”

Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood (Head of PROTON Motorsports) said: “Our drivers have shown great skill and determination on this week’s round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Neither Giandomenico [Basso] or P-G [Andersson] had experienced the twisty stages on the Spanish island, so they both drove really well to bring their cars home with no problems in ninth and 16th place. Following on from our win on the Malaysian Rally, this event was again very encouraging for the PROTON Motorsports team. The team has shown that the Satria Neo S2000 is moving forward quickly now. Chris [Mellors, team principal] and his engineers have worked very hard and we are now seeing the benefits of this hard work. It’s a shame P-G had the punctures, otherwise I believe we could have had two cars in the top 10 on this IRC round. And, of course, let’s not forget this was the first time both the guys had driven the Satria in competition on a pure asphalt rally. We have a good season in the IRC to look forward to.”

Chris Mellors (team principal) said: “It’s a good result for the team; maybe ninth doesn’t sound so impressive but when you look at the time difference on the rally, it was so close. With the improvements we have made, we’re less than a second per kilometre off the pace now. We did virtually no testing before because of the new suspension and everything else. Now we’ll do some proper testing with the chassis and engine. We can easily find another half second and then we’re getting close to fine-tuning. At the moment we’ve made a big step forward and we’re very pleased. The first time Giando was in the car was on Monday morning for the pre-event test, which is quite a testimony to where we are. This points to a good future. We’ve got a good programme this year and we can carry on the development. We start now.”