Ypres rally : news in brief

No pressure for home hero Neuville

Local hero Thierry Neuville insists he is not feeling any pressure ahead of the GEKO Ypres Rally, which gets underway later today.

Neuville is one of the favourites to win the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event in his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 Super 2000.

“I think the pressure is on some of the other guys,” said the 23-year-old. “I showed on the last rallies I can go fast. It’s my home rally as well as for Freddy [Loix] but the pressure is on him because he was the winner of the last edition and now I want to beat him!”

Neuville, who will be co-driven by countryman Nicolas Gilsoul, prepared for the event with a two-day test last week. He added: “The car feels very good. The roads in the test were similar but not quite the same to Ypres so we used the shakedown to confirm the set-up.”

Mikkelsen not concerned by threat of rain

ŠKODA UK Motorsport’s Andreas Mikkelsen says he is not concerned by the possibility of rain on the GEKO Ypres Rally.

Local forecasts suggest a possibility of rain from 14:00hrs-20:00hrs today, which would impact on the opening stages of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event.

Mikkelsen, who turned 22 in the build-up to the rally, said: “I don’t know too much about the weather at the moment but it could be rain or sun. I did a rally in France last year, which was very wet with bad conditions so it doesn’t matter to me. Of course it’s nice to have a dry rally where it is just pure speed but if it’s raining it will be like ice out there and a lot will happen.”

The Norwegian said it would be difficult to adopt a cautious approach if it rains due to the potential time loss being too great. However, he said changes could be made to the set-up of his Fabia S2000 to cope with the slippery roads.

“For sure you go softer with the springs and the roll bars because you can’t lean on the car so much through the corners,” said Mikkelsen. “But you really need to care where there is a lot of cutting because that will be mud put out on the roads so you really need to think a lot.”

Bouffier: lack of Ypres experience won´t hurt

Bryan Bouffier hopes that his lack of GEKO Ypres Rally experience won’t affect his chances of boosting his Intercontinental Rally Challenge title hopes with a strong result on the fifth round of the series this week.

The Peugeot France driver has only tackled the demanding Belgian asphalt event on one previous occasion but needs a high score to move back into contention for the coveted title having led the standings after the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo in January.

“The main thing will be to make sure we have good pacenotes because these stages are very complex,” said the Peugeot 207 Super 2000 driver. “They are very fast and it isn’t easy to find the ideal rhythm. My aim will be to have fun and hopefully finish in the big points to boost my IRC chances.”

Bouffier crashed into retirement on his only previous visit to Ypres. He will start second on the road alongside co-driver Xavier Panseri.

Wilks says confidence is much improved

Guy Wilks says his confidence behind the wheel of his Peugeot UK 207 Super 2000 is much improved as he prepares to start the GEKO Ypres Rally, round five of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Wilks took part in a two-day test last week and was extremely satisfied with the result. “I had good confidence even by the mid-point of the test,” said Wilks. “I can’t grumble at all after the test because we had a very good feeling. I feel confident in the car and hopefully we can transfer that to the rally and keep good confidence all the way through. I’m happy with the car and that makes a big difference.”

Briton Wilks, who turned 30 in January, was unable to compete in Ypres last year as he was still recuperating from the injuries sustained in a crash on Rally d’Italia-Sardegna.

He continued: “It’s a rally like no other rally and has its own challenges. We’ve been here before, we had good pace then so we just hope we can do the same again and have a good result.”