S-WRC: Advantage Sandell as a puncture slows Brynildsen

Patrik Sandell emerged from the final stage of day two of Rallye de France with the lead of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship category after Eyvind Brynildsen hit trouble late on.

The Norwegian started the last stage of the day 21 seconds clear of Sandell following a hugely impressive performance in his Skoda Fabia S2000. But a front-left puncture, which he picked up approximately halfway through the 13.09-kilometre test, cost him 35 seconds and the lead of S-WRC heading into Sunday’s final four stages.

“It was a slow puncture but it’s not a problem because I will beat him tomorrow,” said Brynildsen. “I’ve worked too hard today to lose like this. I won’t accept it.”

Brynildsen had led throughout the day despite suffering a spin on the first Pays d’Ormont stage, where he also survived a trip into a ditch and briefly ended up on two wheels. “I had a good pace in Germany and a good test here on Monday so I was confident that I could do well,” said Brynildsen. “Everything has been working fine with the car so things are looking good.”

Sandell, who suffered two spins on stage 11, added: “I lost 20 seconds to Eyvind by spinning. They were my mistakes and I was determined to fight back after that. We changed the dampers a bit in service to stop the car from rolling so much and I pushed hard in the afternoon and found a good rhythm. The gap is not very big so I will be trying very hard tomorrow.”

Jari Ketomaa remains in contention for the S-WRC title by completing the second day of his first asphalt rally in third overall in his Shanghai FCACA Rally Team Fiesta, which was filling with water in the morning loop after the Finn damaged the floor of the car briefly going off the road on stage 11.

“I’m just training to gain the experience and avoid making any mistakes,” said Ketomaa, a winner of three S-WRC rounds so far this season.

A spin on stage 10 cost Michal Kosciuszko a shot at the podium with the Polish ace dropping to fourth in his Skoda. He will start the final day 4.5s clear of joint S-WRC title leader Xevi Pons, who lost time with a power steering fault on Friday evening and when a handbrake fault developed on Saturday morning.

Martin Prokop is a despondent sixth overnight in his Fiesta, which he had to drive throughout Friday’s stages with no power steering, a fault he said has cost him a crack at the S-WRC title on what is his last point-scoring opportunity of the season. “I lost everything yesterday and really hate this rally,” said the Czech driver.

Bernardo Sousa restarted under SupeRally regulations following his off on Friday afternoon’s eighth stage. He is seventh overall heading into day three. Wildcard entrant Julien Maurin also restarted under SupeRally rules and adopted a low-risk approach. However, a steering problem and puncture slowed his progress. He holds eighth overnight.

A gearbox fault forced Albert Llovera to retire his Abarth Grande Punto three quarters of the way through stage 10. He will rejoin the action on Sunday morning.