Bouffier to start first on the road in Corsica

Bryan Bouffier and co-driver Xavier Panseri will start the opening day of Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc first on the road in their Peugeot France 207 Super 2000.

The reigning French rally champion and winner of round one of this year’s Rallye Monte-Carlo will be followed by BFO Škoda Rally Team driver Freddy Loix with Peugeot UK’s Guy Wilks third.

Bouffier said: “I’m not sure it does [make a difference running first on the road] because I don’t think the road will be very dirty. We will be okay.”

Jan Kopecký goes fourth in his Škoda Motorsport Fabia S2000 with Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg’s Thierry Neuville next up. Andreas Mikkelsen completes the top six for Škoda UK Motorsport.

The top 10 starters will tackle the stages in two-minute intervals. The remaining competitors will be separated by one-minute intervals.

The top 10 IRC starters are as follows:

1 Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000)
2 Freddy Loix/Frédéric Miclotte (Škoda Fabia S2000)
3 Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Peugeot 207 S2000)
4 Jan Kopecký/Petr Starý (Škoda Fabia S2000)
5 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Peugeot 207 S2000)
6 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (Skoda Fabia S2000)
7 Bruno Magalhães/Paulo Grave (Peugeot 207 S2000)
8 Toni Gardemeister/Tapio Suominen (Škoda Fabia S2000)
9 Pierre Campana/Sabrina de Castelli (Peugeot 207 S2000)
10 Julien Maurin/Olivier Ural (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000)