The champion of Europe in the rally will be a driver with a Skoda Fabia S2000 this year as well. Factory drivers Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm extended their lead in the overall classification with victory at the " Rallye International du Valais ", the penultimate event of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC). Only their colleagues Sepp Wiegand/Frank Christian can beat them to the ERC title for driver and co-driver. This crew from the Skoda Auto Deutschland team finished in third place at the competition in the Swiss canton of Wallis.
" Congratulations to both pairs for an excellent result ," said the team boss Skoda Motorsport Michal Hrabánek . " Both of our Skoda Fabia S2000s worked like Swiss watches again. The fact that both cars reached the podium is the result of the professional performance of the entire team during this weekend. We are very pleased that the ERC title will now be decided between two crews with Skoda cars. In addition to the successes in the APRC and already three national championship titles in 2014, this result in the ERC is another golden chapter in the successful history of the Skoda Fabia S2000 ."
The Rallye International du Valais was for the second time in a row completely under the Skoda brand. Already last year, the Lappi/Ferm crew won this ERC event in the Swiss Alps, and this year Skoda cars were in the lead for all three days of the rally. From Thursday to Friday, Wiegand/Christian spent the night as the ERC leaders for the first time, then on the second day Lappi/Ferm took over the lead and remained in this position until the finish line on Saturday evening.
" The whole weekend went great for us, " said Lappi . " Me and Janne are very proud to have won in Switzerland for the second time. I would like to thank the whole team for an excellent job. Now we have a very good position in the championship and we will go to the last event in Corsica with a very good feeling ." After the success in Latvia and Northern Ireland, this is already the third victory in the ERC this year for the Finnish crew.
" It was an extremely challenging rally for us ", said Wiegand after his fourth ERC podium finish this season. " We started well, but then, for example, with a flat tire on Friday, we were simply unlucky. We are all the more happy that we finished here in third place. Me and Frank even have a chance to win the European Championship. "
Rallye International du Valais – final results
1. Lappi/Ferm (FIN/FIN, Skoda Fabia S2000) 2.46.22.4 hrs.
2. Breen/Martin (IRL/GB, Peugeot 208 T16 R5) + 42.0s
3. Wiegand/Christian (D/D, Skoda Fabia S2000) + 3.04.1 min.
4. Hirschi/Landais (CH/F, Peugeot 208 T16 R5) + 4.10.2 min.
5. Burri/Ferrero (CH/F, Ford Fiesta R5) + 4.17.8 min.
6. Consani/Vilmot (F/F, Peugeot 207 S2000) + 4.24.8 min.
7. Althaus/Ioset (CH/CH, Skoda Fabia S2000) + 5.56.9 min.
8. Perroud/Marchand (CH/CH, Skoda Fabia S2000) + 6.22.5 min.
9. Gonon/Horgnies (CH/CH, Subaru Impreza R4) + 7.08.9 min.
10. Radoux/Gregoire (CH/CH, Ford Fiesta R5) + 9.53.5 min.
Source: Skoda Motorsport
