Portugal – A new podium for Chatillon in WRC3

Having never raced in Portugal, Mattéo Chatillon was delighted to have to face the legendary roads of the Porto region. “ It's unrivaled, he said after the reconnaissance. What a playground! The special stages are superb with a wide variety of profiles, fast, slow, rough, sandy… We know we are going to have a lot of fun with every kilometer. » Despite his meager background at this level, the Frenchman did not procrastinate when setting objectives. “ With the field assembled here, I think it's going to be a great fight, he predicted. As I'm tired of finishing 2^e, our goal is to win. »

Immediately at a high pace Chatillon took the lead at the end of the superspecial. SS2 having been neutralized, he retained his position in SS3, but suffered a big setback after SS4 where he nevertheless won. A pointing error from his navigator (1 minute early) cost him a minute penalty. “ We are a team, he assured. When a driver makes a mistake, his co-driver does not come and blame him. » Relegated 6^e of WRC3, another rally started for the 22-year-old young man. Beginning his ascent, he had already returned 3^e Friday night.

Observing the fight between Diego Dominguez (the future WRC3 winner) and Bruno Bulacia, Chatillon had to hope for a racing event to improve his situation. A puncture for the Bolivian in SS16 allowed the Châtellerault driver to gain a position. Wishing to keep it, he increased the pace at the end of the weekend in order to contain Bulacia. Author of several best times in WRC3, Mattéo Chatillon finished his first Rally of Portugal with a third 2^e after those of Monte-Carlo (where he did not score points) and Croatia.

« We feared that Bulacia would come back to us, so we stopped management to go back into attack mode from Saturday noon and it was much more pleasant, he summarized. While continuing to work on the car with the ARL team, who once again did a great job, we are getting a new 2^e place. We are very happy since we are scoring important points. We have to continue to improve to move up a notch and try to win. » Now 3^e of the WRC3, 7 points behind the leader, Mattéo Chatillon will have a new opportunity to aim for the best places during the Sardinia rally (May 30-June 2) where he will be faced with fifteen JWRC drivers, including Romet Jürgenson, who currently leads the WRC3.

WRC3 – Ranking after 5 rounds

1. Jürgenson Romet 43 points
2. Černý Jan 37
3. Chatillon Mattéo 36
4. Rossi Ghjuvanni 28
5. Johansson Mille 25
6. Dominguez Diego Jr. 25
7. Anwar Hamza 25

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