Intercontinental Rally Challenge newcomer Germain Bonnefis has emerged as a future star by claiming his maiden IRC stage victory on Rally San Marino.
Bonnefis, in a Peugeot Sport 207 Super 2000, set a time of 12m54.0s through the 14.45-kilometre Sant’Agata Feltria stage, 1.2s quicker than Giandomencio Basso who has moved level with Andreas Mikkelsen at the top of the leaderboard following Saturday’s third stage.
Although Bonnefis, a 25-year-old from France, conceded running eighth on the road had helped his cause due to the cleaner nature of the stage surface, he was nevertheless delighted with his performance.
“I did not realise it would be the scratch time but it’s more easy for us starting later,” said Bonnefis. “But it’s splendid because it’s the first time for me in the IRC and I have just five races in this car.”
Basso, a four-time winner in the IRC, was 1.3s quicker through the stage than Mikkelsen, who completed the last four kilometres of the run with no powersteering on his ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000. “We lost five or six seconds but they are valuable seconds,” said Mikkelsen. “On the previous one we were cleaning more so we have lost even more time.”
Juha Salo shone with the fourth fastest time in his Fiesta S2000 with Umberto Scandola fifth quickest. The young Italian could have gone even faster had it not been for a costly spin 200 metres from the stage finish in his ŠKODA Italia Fabia. Meanwhile, Sepp Wiegand said he was planning to adjust the set-up of his ŠKODA Auto Deutschland Fabia after reporting handling issues in the stage.
Jarkka Nikara has dropped to seventh behind Swiss Peugeot driver Laurent Reuche after stalling his Subaru Impreza’s engine at a hairpin. Reuche lost time on the previous run with a puncture.
Crews are now heading back into San Marino from neighbouring Italy, where the gravel stages are taking place, for a 30-minute service.