Mellors: PROTON is closing on the leaders

PROTON Motorsports’ team principal Chris Mellors says the performance of his drivers PG Andersson and Giandomenico Basso on the recent Prime Yalta Rally is further proof that the pace of the Satria Neo Super 2000 is getting closer to the front-running Peugeot 207s and Skoda Fabias in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Andersson and Basso both failed to get beyond day two of the asphalt event after encountering mechanical problems. However, Italian Basso ran as high as fifth overall while Swede Andersson reported a significant improvement in his car’s handling following changes to the suspension prior to the rally.

“In all honesty the performance of the car is getting much closer to our rivals,” said Mellors. “And there are still fairly easy fixes we can do to make it faster. Okay the last few tenths of a second are always difficult to find but we can go quite a bit faster quite easily with the new dampers. It’s just such a shame we had some problems in Yalta because it could have been a very good rally for us, we could have been right up there.”