ŠKODA Customer Teams Weekly 39/2017

Miguel Zaldivar took the victory in the fifth and final round of the CODASUR South American Rally Championship, the Rally del Atlántico (24-26 November) in Uruguay, as fellow ŠKODA FABIA R5 driver Gustavo Saba was crowned CODASUR champion in dramatic fashion.

Zaldivar and co-driver Edgardo Galindo took advantage of the misfortune of others to end up 2 minutes and 34 seconds ahead of the field in their FABIA R5. It was Zaldivar’s first victory in a CODASUR event this season and capped a good season for the Paraguayan who also finished the year third in the final standings of his own Paraguayan Rally Championship.

Coming into this event, the talk was all about the Saba Compéticion teammates Gustavo Saba and Marcos Ligato. Saba held a one-point lead over Ligato in the CODASUR standings and the Rally del Atlántico was expected to be a race-off between the two for the title.

But in the end, it didn’t quite work out like that. Saba driving alongside regular co-driver Fernando Mussano, started strongly and extended his championship lead by winning the first leg of the rally and with it securing extra points. But there were just 0.6 seconds between the two FABIA R5s after the morning loop of the second leg and everything to play for. However, on special stage 11, Saba was forced to retire from the rally.

That retirement elevated Marcos Ligato to the top of the leaderboard and left him in prime position to claim the title. But disaster struck Ligato and co-driver Ruben Garcia just one stage later. Trouble on SS12 cost the Argentinian duo 37 minutes and more trouble on SS13 saw him fall further back.

Ligato only managed to finish the rally in twelfth place overall, meaning he scored no points for either the second leg or the overall standings. As a result, it was Gustavo Saba who was crowned CODASUR Champion for 2017 by a margin of just 5.5 points.

It is the fifth time Saba has been crowned CODASUR champion in his career and the second successive year he has steered a FABIA R5 to victory in both the Paraguayan and CODASUR championships.

The Rallye du Var (24-26 November) was the ninth and final round of the French Tarmac Rally Championship and a compelling event saw the returning 2016 champion Sylvain Michel impress as five FABIA R5s finished inside the top 10.

Michel was driving his first French tarmac championship event of the year but showed no signs of rustiness as he finished second overall and first in the R5 class for the 2C Compétition team. It was a consistent drive from the Frenchman, who was competing alongside co-driver Fabrice Gordon. He took three stage victories and only finished outside the top 3 once. He ended up just 19.3 seconds behind the overall winner, who was driving a more powerful WRC-spec car.

The Sébastien Loeb Racing FABIA R5 of Quentin Giordano / Vincent Landais finished the rally in fourth position overall and third in the R5 standings. The points from that result were enough to ensure that Giordano would finish the season second in the final French tarmac championship standings.

One place and 26.2 seconds behind them was the RTTC-Yacco FABIA R5 of Charles Martin / Maxime Vilmot. Their Team FJ prepared car suffered a puncture on the final stage of the second leg which cost them valuable time and in the end, this result meant they finished the season third in the French tarmac championship final standings.

Driving his first ever rally in an R5 car, Guillaume Sirot have been pleased with eighth place overall. He was supported by co-driver Emeline Breuil and managed to finish fourth in two stages too. Meanwhile, the Team FJ pairing of Pierre Roché / Martine Roché finished the rally just 4.1 seconds behind Sirot in ninth place overall.

An honourable mention too must go to Mathieu Arzeno and his co-driver Romain Roche. They made a really strong start in their PA Racing prepared FABIA R5 and won two of the opening three stages to lead after the first leg, before crashing out of the rally on SS4.