Tour de Corse : news in brief (3)

Car changes and wider roads aid Kopecký

Jan Kopecký has credited his upturn in form on Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc this morning to the layout of the stages and to the small changes he made to his Škoda Motorsport Fabia Super 2000 during Friday’s final service in Corte.

Kopecký has closed to within 14.8s of first-placed Thierry Neuville with four stages of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge qualifier remaining, having struggled to make his usual impact on the opening two days of the event.

“I have to say this has been for two reasons,” said the Czech driver. “The stages are a little bit different today, smoother and a bit wider in a few parts so it’s a bit similar to Canarias. We also changed the set-up of the car and it’s very good.”

“They were only small things, we were playing a bit with the differentials and the balance. Of course there is more to do with the car but at this moment I am happy and feel good.”

Van Dalen: Neuville won´t settle for second

Marc van Dalen, whose Kronos Racing squad runs Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg driver Thierry Neuville, says the 22-year-old has no plans to settle for second place on Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc.

Neuville, who has never won a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge before, has watched Škoda Motorsport driver Jan Kopecký narrow his overnight advantage from 23.4s to 14.8s with four stages left to run.

“The problem for us is Kopecký,” said van Dalen. “He’s less than 15 seconds behind and there’s no chance to put the throttle a little bit off. The only thing for us is to keep pushing. If we lift a little bit you lose too much time. He has to push and we have to win. It’s logical and he deserves this. He won’t settle for second.”

Neuville admitted he had pushed over the limit on stage 10 in his efforts to keep his rivals advances in check.

“I hope we will both stay on the road but I’m not sure that we can go at this pace to the end,” said Neuville. “One of us will go out of the road [if this continues] and I don’t know really what to do. I was leading the whole weekend and to be second at the end would be a big disappointment. But okay, we need to think about the championship as well.”

Kopecký added: “Of course I carry on pushing, everyone would like to win over here but still I would like to stay on the road. If I catch Thierry it will be better for us but if I don’t catch Thierry we will still be happy because a podium is still a good place to be as the season is very long.”

Arai satisfied with Subaru R4 progress

Toshi Arai says he is continuing to make progress in his all-new R4-specification Subaru Impreza.

Arai, who is making his second appearance in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge on Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc, is 15th overall after 10 stages in the uprated car, which is lighter and more advanced than the standard N4 Impreza.

“Every time we get in the car we improve and this is the important thing,” said the Japanese veteran. “We tried a soft compound Yokohama tyre this morning to test it and see how it would perform and we will try some other tyres later. The car is good but I like driving more on gravel, not so much on Tarmac. But we are here to learn the car and make improvements.”

Meanwhile, Subaru remains on course to win the IRC Production Cup courtesy of Swiss driver Florian Gonon, who holds 13th overall.