Julien Maurin performs at the Rallye du Var

Julien Maurin (Fiesta WRC) does not have to worry at the end of the second stage of the Rally of the Var. The new French Rally champion returned to the service park with a lead of almost two minutes over his closest opponent following the retirement of Romain Dumas (Porsche 997 GT3 RS) who lost 20 minutes after going off the road before throwing in the towel due to a gearbox. " It's a good day ! », declares the leader. “I had fun this morning, when I was fighting with Romain Dumas. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. So it's ultimately a day of waiting, a little frustrating. We have one day left to finish the season, we will work hard to finish well. »

After losing time this morning following a poor choice of tires, Jérémi Ancian (Peugeot 207 S2000) took two scratches this afternoon to reach second position, 20 seconds ahead of Pierre Roché's Mini Countryman. ?It gets better when you make the right choice of tires. I didn't increase the pace this afternoon, I rode like in the morning. As I have no success at the moment, I avoided the dirty parts to avoid ending up on the roof. » With Ludovic Gal's third position in the S2000 category (fifth overall), Team Emap Yacco is well on its way to winning the Teams title. Michel Boetti (207 S2000) is in fourth position and remains in the lead of the Michelin Trophy.

The day was marked by the abandonment of Florian Bernardi at the head of the French Junior Championship and which now sees the title slip towards Axel Garcia who has more than six minutes ahead of the Twingo RS of Simon Lebiez. Cédric Robert took the lead in Citroën Racing Trophy and is also getting closer to the title since the Stéphanois has almost a minute ahead of Frédéric Comte. In Junior, it is Frédéric Hauswald who finds himself in the same situation even if he only occupies third place behind Loïc Astier and Laurent Pellier. Yoann Bonato remains leader of the Opel Adam Cup of which he is the winner with half a minute ahead of Guillaume Sirot. Manu Guigou still dominates the Twingo R2 Trophy with more than four minutes ahead of Nicolas Romiguiere.

The crews only have one stage of four special stages remaining tomorrow before closing the chapter on the 2013 French Rally Championship season. The videos of the Rallye du Var can be found on this link.