Bernardo Sousa consolidates 8th place Andreas Aigner turns in superb times!

Stage ten accident ends Styrian’s point-scoring hopes.

After an incident-prone morning (Aigner lost 18 minutes after careering off course and Sousa lost close to two minutes after flipping his car) the Red Bull Rallying Team’s afternoon went closer to plan at the Uddeholm Swedish Rally.

Bernardo Sousa (POR) and Carlos Magalhaes (POR) held onto eighth place in the PWRC in their Mitsubishi EVO IX. Andreas Aigner (AUT) and Klaus Wicha (GER) turned in some great times (including the best of the lot in stage 14) which in all likelihood are to remain insufficient. The pair’s big loss of time in the tenth stage firmly stubbed out any chances of scoring points in Sweden. At the moment Aigner lies in fifteenth in the PWRC.

There has been a change at the head of the field of the PWRC: Finn Juho Hanninen (Mitsubishi) has taken the lead. 

Andreas Aigner: “It is really too stupid: I’m really upset with myself. We had a lot of misfortune with the accident because we were eaten up and had our wheel rim broken. But on the other hand something like that just shouldn’t have happened. Points are impossible now. Only a minor miracle can save me, namely several drivers dropping out. Getting the best time in stage 14 was indeed pleasing, but it did not really help the situation.”

Bernardo Sousa: “I was actually really lucky today. The flip didn’t really affect me too much or take too much time off and I was able to move up the placings afterwards. There is just one plan for me to live by tomorrow: not to make any mistakes and keep my place. Then I could take a point back from Sweden which would be a dream for me.”

Team boss Raimund Baumschlager: “We were really unfortunate with Andi’s accident. I am really pleased with his performance nevertheless. His best time of the stage showed that he can compete with the top and that the set up was right. It is just a shame that he won’t be getting any points. I am hoping that Bernardo can keep his place in the points tomorrow.”

The Swedish rally will be brought to a conclusion tomorrow with six stages. It gets underway again at 8.08 am on the dot.

Aigner and Wicha’s daily report:       P-WRC/ Overall

SS   9: Horssjön 1    14.89 km 04/17 
SS 10: Hagfors 1    20.92 km 21/55 
SS 11: Vargäsen 1    24.63 km  07/19
SS 12: Horssjön 2    14.89 km cancelled
SS 13: Hagfors 2    20.92 km  01/16
SS 14: Vargäsen 2    24.63 km  04/12

Sousa and Magalhaes’s daily report       P-WRC/ Overall

SS   9: Horssjön 1    14.89 km  10/25 
SS 10: Hagfors 1    20.92 km  17/43 
SS 11: Vargäsen 1    24.63 km  13/30
SS 12: Horssjön 2    14.89 km cancelled
SS 13: Hagfors 2    20.92 km   10/23
SS 14: Vargäsen 2    24.63 km   12/24