S-WRC ace Ketomaa untroubled on day two

The chase for Super 2000 World Rally Championship honours on Rally Japan has been a two-horse race for much of Saturday after Bernardo Sousa stopped on the day’s opening test

Sousa, from Madeira, was approximately 500 metres from the start of the 17.68-kilometre Nikara test [SS11] when his Ford Fiesta S2000 ground to a halt with an electrical failure.

But with Sousa more than one minute adrift of second-placed Martin Prokop at the start of the day, his exit has had little impact on the overall classification, which Jari Ketomaa continues to top by a comfortable margin in his Fiesta.

“It’s just been a steady drive with no need to rush,” said the Finn, who is on course for his third victory of the season in the new-for-2010 S-WRC.

Although Ketomaa conceded that the reduced field has made for a less exciting rally, he added that he has been able to gain plenty of satisfaction from taking part on the Sapporo-based event.

“It’s good because we have not driven in these rough conditions in this type of car before,” said Ketomaa. “Although it’s not been raining there are some damp sections under the trees and this will be good practice when we get to Rally GB [in November]. Before now we have always been on rallies with good grip but that has not always been the case here.”

Ketomaa said he was not entirely happy with the overall balance of his Autotek Motorsport-run Fiesta, adding: “We’re still having trouble turning into the high-speed corners but we’re working on it and trying to improve the car.”

Second-placed Prokop said the biggest challenge he has faced today was negotiating the rough stage surface. “I can’t say I’ve been cruising but there is nobody to fight with because Jari is quite far away and Bernardo had his problem,” said the Czech Fiesta pilot, who stands to move into the joint lead of the S-WRC title standings if he maintains his second place at the finish on Sunday afternoon.

“It is not easy for our car on these damaged roads so we have to keep out of trouble to get to the finish and build the experience because this is my first time competing in Japan,” he added.

Sousa, who is expected to continue on day three under SupeRally regulations, admitted the most frustrating aspect of stopping so early on day two was that he hadn’t been able to try out a new set-up, which he’d developed with his engineers following Friday’s opening stages.

“There was no warning we had a problem, the car just stopped and there was something wrong with the electrics,” said Sousa. “It’s so frustrating but not just because we have stopped early but because we did some changes on the car last night to try to reduce the gap to the others but we have not been able to try them out. Hopefully we can come back tomorrow for a better day.”