FXPRO 13 -15 MARCH 2009 FIA PRODUCTION CAR (FOR DRIVERS) ROUND 2 OF 8

1. EVENT SUMMARY 7. FASTEST STAGE TIMES (SEASON) 2. DRIVER QUOTES 8. SPRINTER STANDINGS (EVENT) 3. RESULTS (EVENT) 9. SPRINTER STANDINGS (SEASON) 4. RETIREMENTS (EVENT) 10. DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 5. LEADERS (EVENT) 11. CO-DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 6. FASTEST STAGE TIMES (EVENT) 12. WHAT IS THE PRODUCTION CAR WRC? 13. NEXT ROUND

1. EVENT SUMMARY

Second P-WRC victory in a row for Sandell and Škoda in Cyprus

Swedish driver and co-driver Emil Axelsson scored the second P-WRC victory of their career in their new Skoda Fabia S2000, on the second round of the 2009 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship, FxPro Cyprus Rally. But it wasn’t without a fight from second-placed Armindo Araújo (P, Mitsubishi) who led from the start and just lost out on the penultimate stage. The lead duos performances were also good enough to finish ninth and 10 th respectively in the event’s overall standings. Third on the podium was 2006 P-WRC Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT, ), who welcomed a return to form after a disappointing last season. The result sees Sandell extend his lead in the P-WRC standings by seven points ahead of Araújo.

This year’s Cyprus Rally presented a different challenge for crews as it is the WRC’s first mixed surface rally since 1996 after regulations were changed again to allow them for this season.

Quietly confident on tarmac, Araújo flew through the asphalt stages on the first day, winning all but one of them and pulling out a 33.2-second lead ahead of nearest rival Sandell by close of play. But as the Portuguese expected, as soon as they started the gravel stages on day two, Sandell picked up his pace. The Swedish driver reduced his deficit to just 16.5 seconds by the end of the day but Araújo wasn’t giving up the fight which he showed by winning the last stage of the day to regain a few seconds. But luck was not on the Mitsubishi driver’s side as a broken gearbox on the first stage of the final day eventually saw him drop 34.1secs to Sandell on the penultimate stage of the rally and Sandell stormed into the lead. A sad moment for the Portuguese after nothing less than a brilliant performance but an impressive result for Sandell who clocked the second P-WRC victory for the all new Škoda Fabia S2000.

There was just as big a battle for third between Simone Campedelli (I, Mitsubishi) and Al-Attiyah throughout day one. The Italian driver dominated with just a few brake problems costing him 20 seconds on SS4 when he temporarily relinquished his position to Al-Attiyah. But as with the lead duo, the chasing Qatari driver soon stepped up the pressure on gravel and two stage wins through the day (SS7 and SS10) helped him hold on to the final podium spot. Unfortunately the Italian had a bad second day as a broken rear differential just 5km into SS7 saw him drop more than seven minutes and four positions over the trio of stages. While an overheating engine caused him a few concerns and meant he was unable to catch the lead duo, another stage win for Al-Attiyah ensured he confidently held onto third place.

Meanwhile, ’s (J, Subaru) performance improved through the second day after he struggled with brake woes throughout day one. His top three times and a stage win (SS8) helped pull him into fourth which he defended through the final day despite driving almost the entire day with a broken front right driveshaft. Although disappointed, he was happy to score good points to start the season after his engine failure on last month.

On his fifth WRC event, Latvian driver Andis Neiksans (Mitsubishi) didn’t make a bad start considering he was driving tarmac stages for the first time of his career and he tried to stay on the line and avoid the stones. Unfortunately, things went downhill. On SS3 he had a problem with his left wheel bearings and suspension, and 16km into SS6 his gearbox broke, leaving him with just fourth gear. That then resulted in a damaged clutch and he was stuck in gear by the end of the stage. A gearbox change that evening overran, as did work on the clutch during the morning service on day two, costing 2minutes 20secs in penalties in total. With no time to spare, the crew also had to continue working to make the

necessary set-up changes on the road section, so day two was fairly difficult for the Latvian driver. But he stayed out of trouble for the rest of the rally and even started to enjoy it, to finish in a well-deserved fifth place, repeating his result in Norway.

Charalambos Timotheou (CY, Mitsubishi) won Cyprus Rally in 2007 when it ran as part of the Middle East Rally Championship but he struggled a little on the opening tarmac stages which were strewn with gravel and stones thrown up from cars running earlier on the road. The Cypriot driver, entered into the rally by the event organisers, was conscious to avoid punctures. Happy to be back on familiar gravel he started to enjoy the rally and was pleased to score P-WRC points for his sixth place finish.

Frédéric Sauvan (F, Mitsubishi) made adjustments to his notes during the opening trio of stages on day one so he wasn’t happy with his times and he struggled to find a good pace on the latter group of stages as well. Unfortunately he went off the road just over half way through SS8 and, unable to rejoin the stage, incurred 20 minutes in penalties for not completing the rest of the day’s stages. But he drove trouble-free on the final day scoring two points for seventh, his best result to date.

Gabor Mayer (H, Subaru) was pleased to get through the first day without problems as he found it very tough. Although the stages on day two were more slippery he started to enjoy the rally and with no further problems to hinder the Hungarian, he eventually managed to scoop the last available point for eighth, and happy to have gained some valuable Cypriot experience.

Gianluca Linari’s (I, Subaru) rally didn’t get off to a good start as he hit a stone on SS1 which broke the oil sump and sidelined him for the day. Day two didn’t get any better as he again hit something in SS11 which broke the battery, but he stayed out of trouble on the final day to finish ninth.

Egoi Eder Valdés Lópes (E, Subaru) had a clutch and oil pump problem on SS2 which also forced him to stop for the day. He restarted for day two but stopped again on the road section between SS8 and SS9 as he ran out of fuel. But luck stayed on the Spaniard’s side on the final day as he finished problem-free in 10th .

Gaurav Gill’s (IND, Subaru) rally started really well, the Indian happy to be setting times comparable to Arai’s. But on SS3 he lost the use of his brakes and had to drive 12km without. His brakes also went again on the repeat run through the stage later in day, at exactly the same place. On day two he struggled to set competitive times again as his set-up wasn’t right but managed to stay out of trouble. He didn’t escape worries on the final day however as he had to fix a broken steering arm from SS12 at the remote service, and his Impreza finally gave up with electrical woes on the road section after the final stage of the rally.

After making such a great start to the event, Campedelli’s day two woes seemed to continue as another broken rear differential, this time on the opening stage of the final day (SS12), made life very difficult and he eventually retired on the final stage of the rally.

Pirelli Star Driver Martin Semerád (CZ, Mitsubishi) had a difficult rally from the outset as he hit a stone 10km into SS3 which damaged the front right wheel and cost him a minute. He went off the road 10km into SS6 which caused no damage but cost another 30 seconds. Sadly he pulled a wheel off and broke his suspension after going off the road again on SS8 and, unable to continue, he also incurred 20 minutes in penalties. But disaster struck for the P-WRC’s youngest driver as a broken front right driveshaft on SS12 quickly denied him the chance to finish the event.

Entered into the event by the organisers, Pirelli Star Driver Nicos Thomas (CY, Mitsubishi) started to lose the power in his engine on SS3 although he wasn’t sure why. Despite this he was happy with his day considering his inexperience on tarmac, having only driven one asphalt event before. Unfortunately the Cypriot 21 year-old, who finished fifth in the Middle East Rally Championship last year and won the Cypriot round, was sidelined with electrical woes on the road section to SS9, bringing his rally to a swift end.

Top Run, which was registered to take part in P-WRC this season, did not enter any competitors on this rally, its first nominated round. The Stewards have excluded the two entries (car numbers 41 and 42) from the 2009 P-WRC.

2. DRIVER QUOTES 1st – Patrik Sandell, Skoda Fabia RS S2000: “I was trying to push through the whole rally but I didn’t really know the limit of the car. But we pushed more as we went, we had no problems and it feels really good to win again - absolutely perfect. It was amazing to drive with the Red Bull Rallye Team and with Skoda but two wins with them is even better. Now we have to focus on the next one.”

2nd – Armindo Araújo, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX “We had a broken gearbox on the first stage this morning and it was making a bad noise after that. It was really good to lead the rally for so long and now Sandell has passed me. In normal conditions we would have fought right to the end for the win but rally is rally. I’m quite happy – this is still a much better start to the season than last year, that’s for sure. We’re improving, the team are improving so that’s all good.”

3rd – Nasser Al-Attiyah, WRX STi: “I was really looking for a win here but on tarmac we weren't fast enough and also today we had some engine problems on the long stage. But six points is a great start to the P-WRC season so I'm quite happy. Giovanni [Bernacchini, co- driver] did a very good job - we won the rally last week in Kuwait and 3 rd place here, so it's really going well with him. I’m looking forward to Portugal now - I think I can do well there.”

3. RESULTS (EVENT) *subject to scrutineering and routine fuel analysis POS CAR# DRIVER CO-DRIVER CAR TIME POINTS 1 146 Patrik Sandell (S) Emil Axelsson (S) Skoda 5:10:11.3 10 2 147 Armindo Araújo (P) Miguel Ramalho (P) Mitsubishi +18.3 8 3 144 Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) Giovanni Bernacchini (I) Subaru +58.8 6 4 133 Toshi Arai (J) Glenn Macneall (AUS) Subaru +8:34.1 5 5 140 Andis Nieksans (LV) Peteris Dzirkals (LV) Mitsubishi +11:35.3 4 6 160 C. Timotheou (CY) Savvas Laos (CY) Mitsubishi +11:50.4 3 7 137 Frédéric Sauvan (F) Thibault Gorczyca (F) Mitsubishi +28:58.9 2 8 138 Gabor Mayer (H) Robert Tagai (H) Subaru +32:16.1 1 9 134 Gianluca Linari (I) Andrea Cecchi(I) Subaru +48:01.0 0 10 136 Egoi Eder Valdez Lopes (E) Daniel Lucas (E) Subaru +55:07.4 0

4. RETIREMENTS (EVENT) CAR# DRIVER CO-DRIVER CAR STAGE REASON 159 Nicos Thomas (CY) Stephane Prevot (B) Mitsubishi TC9 Electrical 135 Martin Semer ád (CZ) Bohuslav Ceplecha (CZ) Mitsubishi SS12 Driveshaft 139 Simone Capedelli (I) Danilo Fappani (I) Mitsubishi SS14 Differential 148 Gaurav Gill (IND) David Senior (GB) Subaru TC14A Electrics

5. LEADERS (EVENT) CAR# DRIVER CAR STAGE 147 Armindo Araújo Mitsubishi Lancer SS1-12 146 Patrik Sandell Skoda Fabia S2000 SS13-14

6. FASTEST STAGE TIMES (EVENT) CAR# DRIVER CAR WINS STAGES 147 Armindo Araújo Mitsubishi Lancer 6 SS1-3, SS5-6, SS11 146 Patrik Sandell Skoda Fabia 4 SS4, SS9, SS13-14 144 Nasser Al-Attiyah Subaru Impreza 3 SS7, SS10, SS12 133 Toshi Arai Subaru Impreza 1 SS8

7. FASTEST STAGE TIMES (SEASON) CAR# DRIVER CAR N CY P RA I GR AUS GB TOTAL 46 Patrik Sandell Skoda 8 4 12 45 Patrik Flodin Subaru 8 0 8 47 Armindo Araújo Mitsubishi 0 6 6 G Subaru 4 0 4 44/50 Nasser Al-Attiyah Subaru 0 3 3 49 Mitsubishi 2 0 2 33 Toshi Arai Subaru 0 1 1 31 Mitsubishi 1 0 1

8. SPRINTER STANDINGS (EVENT)

Total Total Total

P P P O SS TOT O SS TOT O SS TOT S DRIVER AV S DRIVER AV S DRIVER AV 1 Sandell 112 14 8.00 6 Neiksans 37 14 2.64 11 Semerad 8 7 1.14 2 Araújo 111 14 7.93 7 Gill 34 14 2.43 12 Linari 2 9 0.22 3 Al-Attiyah 88 14 6.29 8 Thomas 14 8 1.75 13 Mayer 0 14 0.00 4 Arai 56 14 4.00 9 Timotheou 23 14 1.64 14 Valdes 0 6 0.00 5 Campedelli 45 13 3.46 10 Sauvan 15 10 1.50 The P-WRC Sprinter Standings are an unofficial method of ranking drivers based on individual stage performance. To calculate the Sprinter Score, drivers are awarded points for each stage classification (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1) and the total points are divided by the number of stages completed by the driver. This average score gives an indication of the drivers’ relative performance against his opponents on special stages, while limiting the impact of time loss due to technical problems on stage and penalties incurred.

9. SPRINTER STANDINGS (SEASON) CAR# DRIVER CAR N CY P RA I GR AUS GB TOTAL 46 Sandell Skoda 7.22 8.00 pass pass 7.51 44 Al-Attiyah Subaru - 6.29 pass pass 6.29 45 Flodin Subaru 6.13 pass pass 6.13 49 Brynildsen Mitsubishi 5.83 pass pass 5.83 47 Araújo Mitsubishi 3.52 7.93 pass pass 5.19 31 Prokop Mitsubishi 4.39 pass pass 4.39 33 Arai Subaru 3.50 4.00 pass pass 3.94 39 Campedelli Mitsubishi pass 3.46 pass 3.46 40 Neiksans Mitsubishi 3.22 2.64 pass pass 3.00 48 Gill Subaru pass 2.43 pass 2.43 32 Sousa Fiat 1.43 pass pass 1.43 37 Semerad Mitsubishi 0.78 1.14 pass pass 0.87 37 Sauvan Mitsubishi 0.30 1.50 pass pass 0.67 44 Tarabus Fiat 0.43 - pass pass 0.43 34 Linari Subaru 0.04 0.22 pass pass 0.09 38 Mayer Subaru pass 0.00 pass 0.00 36 Valdes Subaru pass 0.00 pass 0.00

10. DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 2009 FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (FOR DRIVERS) * subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA POS CAR DRIVER CAR N CY P RA I GR AUS GB POINTS # 1 46 Patrik Sandell (S) Skoda 10 10 pass pass 20 2 47 Armindo Ara újo (P) Mitsubishi 5 8 pass pass 13 3 49 Eyvind Brynildsen (N) Mitsubishi 8 pass pass 8 4 40 Andis Nieksans (LV) Mitsubishi 4 4 pass pass 8 5 31 Martin Prokop (CZ) Mitsubishi 6 pass pass 6 6 44/50 Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) Subaru pass 6 6 7 33 Toshi Arai (J) Subaru R 5 pass pass 5 8 44 Jaromir Tarabus (CZ) Fiat Abarth 3 - pass pass 3 9 G C. Timotheou (CY) Mitsubishi - 3 3 10 37 Frederic Sauvan (F) Mitsubishi 1 2 pass pass 3 11 45 Patrik Flodin (S) Subaru 2 pass pass 2 12 38 Gabor Mayer (H) Subaru pass 1 pass 1 13 34 Gianluca Linari (I) Subaru 11th 9th pass pass 0 14 G Bernt Kollevold (N) Mitsubishi 9th - 0 15 35 Martin Semerad (CZ) Mitsubishi 10th R pass pass 0 16 36 Egoi Valdes Lopes (E) Subaru pass 10th pass 0 - 32 Bernardo Sousa (P) Fiat Abarth R pass pass 0 - 39 Simone Campedelli (I) Mitsubishi pass R pass 0 - 48 Gaurav Gill (IND) Subaru pass R pass 0 - G Andreas Mikkelsen (N) Mitsubishi R - 0 - G Nicos Thomas (CY) Mitsubishi - R 0

11. CO-DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 2009 FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (FOR DRIVERS) * subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA POS CAR DRIVER CAR N CY P RA I GR AUS GB PNTS # 1 46 Emil Axelsson (S) Skoda 10 10 pass pass 20 2 47 Miguel Ramalho (P) Mitsubishi 5 8 pass pass 13 3 49 (F) Mitsubishi 8 pass pass 8 4 40 Peteris Dzirkals (LV) Mitsubishi 4 4 pass pass 8 5 31 Jan Tománek (CZ) Mitsubishi 6 pass pass 6 6 44/50 Giovanni Bernacchini (I) Subaru pass 6 6 7 33 Glenn Macneall (AUS) Subaru R 5 pass pass 5 8 44 Daniel Trunkat (CZ) Fiat Abarth 3 - pass pass 3 9 G Savvas Laos (CY) Mitsubishi - 3 3 10 45 Goran Bergsten (S) Subaru 2 pass pass 2 11 48 David Senior (GB) Subaru pass 2 pass 2 12 37 Thibault Gorczyca (F) Mitsubishi 1 1 pass pass 2

11. WHAT IS THE FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP? The FIA P-WRC is a support championship to the WRC, open to drivers or teams using near-standard road cars. This season a diverse selection of drivers represent at least 15 countries, covering Asia-Pacific, Europe and Australasia, and P-WRC TV footage during 2008 was aired by 51 channels covering 214 territories. The Mitsubishi Lancer and Subaru Impreza Group N cars have set the scene of some epic battles for victory and Super 2000 cars are now challenging the Group N cars for P- WRC honours. In 2009, P-WRC crews head to Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Australia and GB. O 12. NEXT ROUND

VODAFONE www.rallydeportugal.pt 2 – 5 APRIL 2009 FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (FOR DRIVERS) ROUND 3 OF 8

For more information visit www.wrc.com . Contact Ellie Storey, [email protected] , +44 7909 908805