Rally – Salanon, the surprise of Lyon-Charbonnières

Jean-Marie Cuoq seemed well on his way to winning the Rally Lyon-Charbonnières, but the driver of the Citroën C4 WRC encountered a mechanical problem in the ninth special causing him to fall to fourth place. David Salanon then took the lead of the event ahead of Lionel Baud who had until now been putting pressure on the first leader. Lionel Baud still had every chance, but a mechanical failure put an end to his hopes and allowed David Salanon to escape to victory.

Jean-Marie Cuoq manages to save a second place after having made a good comeback, finishing around ten seconds ahead of the C4 WRC of Pascal Trojani who completes the podium. The top five is completed by the Mini JCW WRCs of Olivier Marty and Pierre Roché. Gilles Nantet wins in Production on his Porsche 997 GT2 which ranks sixth ahead of the Peugeot 307 WRC of Alain Blaser and the 206 WRC of Hervé Knapick. Pierre Ragues retired following an engine problem on his Fabia S2000 two stages from the finish while the reigning champion of theELMS was in ninth place.

Click on this link to see the summary of the test.

Discover the report of the 66th Lyon-Charbonnières Rally in issue 1957 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.