Bryan Bouffier has refused to give up on his dream of winning the Intercontinental Rally Challenge title following his exclusion from the GEKO Ypres Rally, round five of the series, last month.
Bouffier and co-driver Xavier Panseri finished second overall on the challenging asphalt rally in Belgium aboard their Peugeot France 207 Super 2000. However, post-event technical checks revealed the car’s steering contravened FIA regulations due to an error in assembly.
It means Bouffier slips from second to fourth in the IRC drivers’ standings, 22 points adrift of leader Juho Hänninen. ŠKODA’s advantage over Peugeot in the manufacturers’ battle has widened to 63 points.
“Of course we are disappointed but the season is far from being over,” said Bouffier, the winner of the IRC season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo. “We just have to push to the limit to get the title.”
Frédéric Bertrand, the head of Peugeot Sport’s customer racing division, said: “We take into account the decision from the authorities. We identified this problem as an assembly mistake. For sure, this is not going to help us in the championship ranking but we still have five rallies to run and a long season ahead. This enables the various subsidiary teams and the customers to fight for the brand until the end.”
“Amongst them we have Bryan Bouffier and Xavier Panseri who still have a chance for the title. We will support them as much as we can and will continue to develop our car, which still is a reference in its field for the fifth consecutive season.”
The other notable beneficiary from Bouffier’s exclusion is the Polish M-Sport Ford Fiesta driver Michal Sołowow who climbs into 10th place in the drivers’ table after he was elevated to third place in the amended Ypres Rally results behind new second-placed driver Hans Weijs.