Sarrazin returns to the World Championship with the Tour de Corse!

"I’m happy to be at the start of the Tour de Corse"

By Franck Drui

14 September 2015 - 12:04
Sarrazin returns to the World Championsh

Winner of the Critérium des Cévennes and the Tour de Corse last year, as well as the Rallye Mont-Blanc most recently, Stéphane Sarrazin is about to return to the World Rally Championship. In the next edition of the Tour de Corse, TOYOTA’s official driver as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship will be defending his titles, behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta WRC entered by First Motorsport. Together with codriver Jacques-Julien Renucci, they will compete under the colours of KCMG Composites and ORECA Store, amongst others.

Stéphane Sarrazin knows rally racing quite well, he has regularly competed in the discipline those recent years with his title in the 2004 French Championship, his entries in the IRC and the ERC as well as his official campaigns for Subaru in 2005 and 2006. Actually, it’s the World Rally Championship that the driver from le Gard will soon return to, participating in the Tour de Corse, French round of the competition. Stéphane has carefully prepared this return in WRC. Following on the Italian roads of the Rally Internazionale del Casentino, the French driver also took part in the Rallye Mont-Blanc which he won for the third time (previous successes in 2004 and 2012). He dedicated that win to Frédéric Comte who passed away in a tragic accident during the first stage of the rally.

After the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Stéphane Sarrazin will return to the Tour de Corse (October 1st – 4th) which is back on the WRC’s schedule for the first time since 2008. With the same team and the same car – in a WRC setup as opposed to RRC – that he won with in 2014, as part of the ERC, Stéphane will have to face some very serious contenders.

"I’m happy to be at the start of the Tour de Corse. It’s a rally that I particularly appreciate. I’m also very pleased to return to the World Championship" he confides. "Of course my objectives aren’t the same as last year. WRC contenders are very high quality drivers! We’re going to fight with what we’ve got: a certain knowledge of the site, a perfect harmony with the team and a good understanding of the car on that type of roads. Obviously I’ll have to find the right pace again but that’s the reason why I took part in two other rallies those last couple of weeks. We want to rely on consistency: our aim is to avoid the several pitfalls that we could encounter in this edition. We’ll do the math at the end, with the idea of "rocking the boat" somewhere in our minds!"

Just like when he won in 2014, Stéphane Sarrazin will have Jacques-Julien Renucci as codriver. The duet will be on board the WRC Ford Fiesta entered by First Motorsport and competing under the colours of KCMG Composites and Oreca-Store.com.

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