The Proton Satria Neo S2000 had again proved its worthiness as a great rallying machine by grabbing the podium spot in the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship (SWRC) at last week’s Rallye de France. To date, this is PROTON Motorsports’ fifth successive podium finish for the SWRC, with the Swedish driver Per Gunnar Andersson soldiered through the 404.14km race and finishing in third.
Of course, securing a podium finish was not easy for him as other than having to face the tricky French rally course coupled with the ever-changing weather, the car had also suffered some difficulties along the way. During the Special Stage 13 where the Swede was running in a comfortable position, the car suffered a slow puncture, which was followed by an alternator malfunction on the following stage.
“We had a plan when we came to this event. It was a long rally and one where we knew there would be a high rate of retirement, so we decided to play ourselves in and not take too many risks. We were doing that, driving sensibly without any trouble,” said the two-time Junior WRC winner.
“Then we had the problem with the alternator and we had to stop. We came back today (Sunday) and got the third place which keeps us right in the middle of the championship”, he added.
With just two points behind the race leader, this had secured him a seat in advancing to the final round. Teammate and former Production Car World Rally Champion Andreas Aigner who was still in the search of the perfect rhythm in taming the Neo S2000 since he spent most of his career driving the standard Group N cars, finished in fourth place.
“This was not such an easy rally coming from so many events in a Group N car. Everything was so different – even the noise inside the car! But I made it to the finish and I did the job which the team have asked me to do”, said Aigner.
The Rallye de France saw Craig Breen of Ireland taking the first place in a Ford Fiesta S2000 followed by Saudi Arabian Yazeed Al Rajhi in a similar machine. Breen also leads the championship standings with 93 points, Andersson coming in second with 91 and Yazeed with 73. The Catalunya Rally, which is next and final SWRC round will be taking place in Spain from the 8th-11th November.
Photo credits: https://www.facebook.com/ProtonMotorsports
