ERC – Bernardo Sousa did not give up

Portuguese driver Bernardo Sousa wins the Azores Rally, resisting the return of Dutchman Kevin Abbring and his Peugeot 208 T16 until the end. Nice podium for Jean-Michel Raoux.

Published on 17/05/2014 à 19:50

⁰ View comments)

The Sousa – Abbring duel will undoubtedly remain one of the images of this 2014 season of theERC. While the Dutchman from Peugeot Sport was 5″1 behind before the final 21,3 km special, many thought he would be able to catch up with leader Bernardo Sousa (Ford Fiesta RRC) who had been in the lead since the day before. But the Portuguese did better than resist in the final passage in Tronquiera since he was ahead of the 208 by 1″1. “I have no words, explains the winner. It was very hard. These are incredible sensations. A dream has come true. »

However, the dream was difficult to achieve. With a lead of 19″1 before the last loop of the day, Sousa could be confident but Abbring started the charge in SS15 by falling back to 9″3. Despite all his efforts, the Dutchman will never be able to close the gap and will long regret the 10″ penalty he received on Friday evening for checking in late. He fails 6″2 behind Sousa.

Jean-Michel Raoux (Peugeot 207 S2000) completes the podium for this fifth round of the ERC. The Frenchman took advantage of the misfortunes of the Russian Vasily Gryazin in SS16, who lost all his illusions. In the Junior and Two-Wheel Drive categories, Stéphane Lefebvre performed flawlessly with his Peugeot 208 R2.