Historic Tour of Corsica: Julien Saunier widens the gap even further

With its 4 timed sections (a little over 93 km) between Bastia airport and the town of Calvi, this 3^e stage was promising. During the beautiful special stages traced in the Castagniccia, southwest of Bastia, the suspense was there, especially as the rain returned while the competitors waited patiently at the start of Ponte Leccia. Yesterday's scenario was repeated, however, with Julien Saunier dominating.

Winner of SS6, he did not contest SS7 which was cancelled, but he still gained the following one (SS8) before conceding a few seconds in the final time trial. At the end of the 3^e day, his lead is 51'' over his closest rival. We were a bit in the dark this morning., he told Calvi. The team changed the springs last night and I had no idea how the car was going to behave. It turned out to be very pleasant to drive. It became easier, I didn't have to force it and that made some good times. In the final sector which wasn't made for the Porsche, I preferred to relieve the mechanics. With now more than 50'' ahead, we can start to preserve the car. There are still two long stages left. »

In addition to being the fastest, the former Rallyes-Jeune driver saw his rivals have a complicated day. We didn't drive badly and the car ran well., explained Alain Oreille. I'm tired. It's going fast in front. Those who are in the lead have done Rallies-Jeune while for us it's more rally-old… "The mustachioed Martégal was indeed preceded by Tom Pieri. The latter, however, proved to be less dashing than yesterday." Nothing is wrong with the car, he detailed. We have problems with the gearbox, the brakes... it's an old car and we're asking a lot of it. We'll see what we can do in assistance, but it's not impossible that we won't start again tomorrow. "For the sake of the race, this will be very damaging.

At the foot of the podium, Christophe Casanova was satisfied with his day. Despite a power-lagging engine and a clutch problem, we're still here. I can't complain. ", he smiled. He is ahead of Christophe Vaison, the brothers Jérôme and Jean-François Mancini and Anthony Fotia who continues his comeback. " We feasted, affirmed the French hope. In the rain, the Porsches seem faster than us, but we catch up in the dry. With this M3, the sensations are excellent. It's much less sanitized than in a Rally2. »

If he still occupies the 9 tonight^e place, Jos Verstappen didn't really have fun today. I have trouble seeing any progression, he said. The combination between me and the car is not perfect and it is not very satisfactory. "Renaud Jamoul, his co-pilot, gave more details." There is definitely work to be done on the notes. We see that there are things like small turns that we did not note and we had to. Furthermore, our engine may have suffered after our spin yesterday, because We lack power. In these conditions, it is not easy to have fun."

This will probably be the case tomorrow during the stage taking the crews from Calvi to Propriano. Heading back down south, they will face SS10 Notre Dame de La Serra (SS10 27,908 km) then Porto/Evisa (SS11 14,766 km), Arbori/Liamone (SS12 25,743) and finally Col de Bellevalle/Pont de Calzola (SS13 25,172 km), special stages whose names evoke many memories for those used to the WRC.

Ranking at the end of the 3nd stage