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23-07-2012 09:35
Mads Østberg and Jonas Andersson winners of the auto24 Rally Estonia
Second day in the auto24 Rally Estonia promised a strong battle between two WRC drivers Mads Østberg and Thierry Neuville. Østberg had advantage of 20,7 seconds ahead Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul. Altough Neuville managed to win two stages on Saturday, Østberg keept his first position and won the auto24 Rally Estonia second time in a row. Gap between Østberg and Neuville was 26,5 seconds.
Mads Østberg: „It was good battle between me and Thierry. We did some changes in setup in the morning which didn’t work very well so we changed it back. It was for us a very importand rally before Finland, we tested different setups and got lot of confidence. Organization of auto24 Rally Estonia was great, good stages lot of spectators and good atmosphere.”
Thierry Neuville: „It was for us the first time to race in Estonia. Stages were as good as we hoped even little bit
better. Okay we didn’t won the rally but it was anyway for us good preparation before Neste Oil Rally Finland.
And I think we have to come back next year to get the auto24 Rally Estonia trophy helmet.”
Third place overall went to the best Estonian crew, Georg Gross and Raigo Mõlder (Ford Focus WRC) losing 1.44,9 to Østberg. Fourth overall were Martin Prokop and Zdenek Hruza (Ford Fiesta RS WRC). Fifth overall were Karl Kruuda and Martin Järveoja driving Ford Fiesta S2000. Best Group N crew Kaspar Koitla and Alo Ivask (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9) were sixth overall.
A6/N3 winners were Markus Abram and Jarmo Võsa (Honda Civic Type-R), in national group Marko Mänty and Joni Mäkela (Honda Civic Type-R).
Auto24 Rally Estonia was also a round of European Championshiop for Historic cars. WRC star Jari-Matti Latvala
had a weekend off and he was having fun in Estonia with Ford Escort BDA. Showing very strong stagetimes
Latvala and co-driver Asko Sairanen won auto24 Rally Estonia Historic 2012. Jari-Matti’s father Jari won auto24
Rally Estonia Historic last year with the same car. Second place and class win in Category 4 went to Valter
Jensen and Erik Pedersen from Norway driving legendary Lancia 037. Third place overall and second place in
Category 3 were Mika Turkki and Mikko Tuominenen (Opel Ascona 400). Category 2 fastest were Mats Myrsell
ja Esko Junttila (Porsche 911 RS) and in Category 1 were winners Sverre Norrgard ja Eugen Damsted (BMW
2002 TI). It is very likely that auto24 Rally Estonia will host round of European championship for Histroic cars
once again.
More information: www.rallyestonia.ee
Margus Kiiver, auto24 Rally Estonia 2012 Press Officer. Foto: Jaanus Ree
