Like Sebastien Ogier, Sweden’s Pontus Tidemand is hoping to come away from the upcoming Rallye de France - Alsace with an FIA world title.
For the first time this season, Tidemand, 22, has the opportunity to wrap things up in the FIA Junior WRC Championship, which he leads after four of the six rounds.
Taking into account both ‘Event’ and ‘Stage’ points, there is a maximum of 39 points up for grabs at the Alsace-based event. To secure the title, Tidemand must pick up twelve points more than his nearest rival, Spain’s José Suárez.
Four other drivers, Yeray Lemes, Sander Pärn, Michael Burri and Martin Koči can mathematically stop the Swede. However, Tidemand only needs two points more than his next strongest competitor, Lemes, to trump the Canary Islander. Pärn, Burri and Koči all need to beat Tidemand by two, 11 or 19 points respectively in order to stay in the running.
If he get enough points, Tidemand will have matched the achievement of the 2012 Junior young driver category winner Elfyn Evans, who also secured the title in Spain.
“Since Germany I’ve been trying to do as many kilometres on asphalt as possible ready for Rallye de France,” said Tidemand, who won the most recent Junior WRC counter in Trier.
“It’s a big challenge to claim the title with an event in hand – it was really impressive what Elfyn achieved last year and I can only hope to match him! It would be great to win the event and the Championship at the same time, but I’ve got some very tough competition, so I can’t do more than stay focused and do my best!”