Neuville leads in Corsica
Rising Belgian star Thierry Neuville opened up an early lead on the first two stages of the Tour de Corse, which is running as part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge for the first time
Kronos Peugeot driver Neuville mounted his most concerted challenge for victory yet in the Canary Islands last month, and started round three of the series in even better form, setting the pace on SS1 by 0.7 seconds and then blitzing the repeat run through the stage to open up an 8.9s lead over Skoda's Jan Kopecky.
The latter is the factory Skoda team's sole official representative this weekend as Skoda has chosen not to enter reigning champion Juho Hanninen on this round. Hanninen may yet still be able to defend his title as under IRC rules drivers only count their best seven scores from the 12-round season.
Monte Carlo winner Bryan Bouffier (PH Peugeot) moved up from fourth to third on SS2 after attending to a steering problem, taking the place from Skoda UK's Andreas Mikkelsen.
Freddy Loix is fifth in the BFO Skoda, battling with Peugeot UK driver Guy Wilks.
Leading positions after SS2: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Thierry Neuville Peugeot Belux (Kronos) 32m08.0s 2. Jan Kopecky Skoda + 8.9s 3. Bryan Bouffier PH Peugeot + 12.4s 4. Andreas Mikkelsen Skoda UK + 13.8s 5. Freddy Loix BFO Skoda + 19.2s 6. Guy Wilks Peugeot UK (Kronos) + 19.6s 7. Pierre Campana Munaretto Peugeot + 25.0s 8. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot Portugal + 39.6s 9. Toni Gardemeister TGS Skoda + 54.6s 10. Julien Maurin M-Sport Ford + 1m19.5s
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