Terres de Catalunya: Tron as a solid leader

Always as selective, the Catalan event, which counts like last year for the French championship, experienced a massacre of favorites during this first stage. Successively, we recorded the abandonments of Germain Bonnefis, who rolled over just at the finish of SS 2, Alain Deveza (part of a broken hub carrier) after SS 3, Cédric Hennion, gearbox blocked at start of SS 4, and finally the fiery Spaniard Xevi Pons (box problem in SS 5).

Winner of four special stages out of the five run (SS 1 being canceled for safety reasons), Noël Tron showed himself to be imperious at the wheel of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 from Team Group Sauvan: ?this morning, at the end of the first stage, I was really pleasantly surprised by our best performance, especially against Xevi Pons, who is truly a world reference. Being in front of him was my main goal. In addition, we really had fun driving, on wide tracks where we can slide well. There were also some brittle places, where you had to know how to let go of seconds. Too bad for Bonnefis, who didn't have time to calibrate. »

Paul Chieusse, delayed by a puncture and a spin in SS 6, is in second place in the general classification with his Peugeot 307 WRC: “We are virtually leading the championship, which is the most important thing. I found the slopes very slippery, and there is no question of playing crazy tomorrow? »

After this stage full of surprises and twists and turns, we note with pleasure the third place of the "returner" Christian Gazaud, third with his Mitsubishi Lancer Group N. Finally, the first driver of the Volant Peugeot 207 RC, is the excellent Jérémi Ancian, who occupies also an extraordinary fourth place overall.