Robert and Tsjoen neck and neck

With Dany Snobeck, winner here in 2008 and 2009, Pieter Tsjoen, winner of Rally du Touquet last month, and other experienced drivers such as Bryan Bouffier, Romain Dumas or Emmanuel Guigou, this Rallye Lyon Charbonnières Rhône presents a beautiful field. Very fit at the start of the season, Pieter Tsjoen (Ford Focus WRC) was eagerly awaited. But, in the first stages, the driver expressed his lack of comfort and did not display as sparkling a pace as at Le Touquet.

On the other hand, Cédric Robert knew how to attack from the start. Best time in SS1, the driver of the Peugeot 307 WRC from the GPC Motorsport Motul team then tied with Pieter Tsjoen in SS2 (tied best time), before signing a new scratch in SS4 then in SS5. It is also in this special that the driver of the GPC Motorsport Motul team widened his biggest gap, increasing his lead to 7??3 over Pieter Tsjoen.

Dany Snobeck (Peugeot 307 WRC) completes the podium and remains in ambush, only 17??1 from the lead of the Rally. Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot 207 S2000), although he cannot really compete with the best WRCs, occupies a very good fourth place, 49??1 behind Robert and with a good lead over the other S2000s.

Romain Dumas (Porsche 996 GT3 RS), sixth for a long time, took advantage of SS5 to move up to fifth place, ahead of Pierre Roché (Subaru Impreza WRC). Eleventh overall, Manu Guigou (Renault Clio R3 Maxi) occupies the head of the two-wheel drive ranking.

After this short first day (47 km), two loops of four special stages for a total of 164 km are on the program.