Delecour drops back in IRC 2WD Cup battle

François Delecour’s efforts to catch Petru Antone Boschetti in the chase for IRC 2WD Cup glory on Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse have been hit by a brake issue on the first run through the Marinca-Cagnano stage.

Delecour, who was fastest on Saturday’s opening run, reported the brakes on his standard-specification Renault Mégane RS began to fade approximately halfway through the 28.96-kilometre test. As a result he trails his Renault Clio-driving rival by 1m15.4s after 10 stages.

Rallying legend Delecour is competing in the IRC for the first time since last season’s Rallye Monte-Carlo, where he finished fifth overall in a Peugeot 207 S2000.

He said: “The chassis with this car is very good, I’m driving very hard, pushing and enjoying myself for sure. Yesterday I had the feeling to go even faster but I do not want to crash, I want to come to the finish but it’s not easy in a Group N car because the brakes do a lot of work and this is a long and difficult rally.”

Delecour reckons he could have been closer to the IRC 2WD Cup lead had it not been for an intercom glitch on day one.

“On the third jump in the first stage we lost the intercom system because it fell down and Dominique [Savignoni] had to use his hands to point me,” said Delecour. “We had a spare one we fitted for the second stage but it was not a good one so it was difficult to hear Dominique. But we fixed it in service on Friday morning.”