The reigning champion of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) has become the series’ most successful driver after winning the Prime Yalta Rally in Ukraine. Skoda’s Juho Hanninen now has seven wins under his belt, one more than Belgian Freddy Loix. The win also puts the Finn back on top of the IRC drivers’ standings and Skoda ahead of Peugeot in the manufacturers’ race.
Peugeot’s Bryan Bouffier came in second, ahead of Hanninen’s Skoda teammate, Czech driver Jan Kopecky. In the standings, Hanninen has 58 points, three more than Kopecky and nine points more than Bouffier, so there’s still plenty to play for. The top five are only separated by 13 points.
In Ukraine, Hanninen looked good for the win going into Saturday’s final six stages. He led Bouffier by 8.2s at that point. The Frenchman pulled it back to 5.1s at the midmorning service halt but the Finn charged his way to victory after that. For Kopecky, a less than confident stage 11 had allowed Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) to threaten his third place but successive stage wins in the afternoon cancelled out the Norwegian threat.
No points for Proton, who had to see Giandomenico Basso retire with engine damage. After running as high as fifth, the Italian reached Friday night’s service in 10th overall, but didn’t continue on Saturday. Oil pressure issues forced out PG Andersson on Friday.
The third Proton driven by local heroes Oleksandr Saliuk Sr and Evgen Chervonenko finished third in the Ukrainian National Rally Championship. The former USSR Rally Champion was a big draw at Yalta, drawing thousands to the event and even Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to the Proton camp! Apparently, the Neo S2000’s fetching looks got plenty of media attention and Proton’s merchandise was sold out, so there’s some consolation to be had.
The next IRC event is the Ypres Rally in Belgium from 23 to 25 June.
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Ok be prepared. Bashing on its way…
What is wrong with you?
When ppl bash proton, you dont like.
When ppl dont bash proton, you expect to have bashing.
Sigh……..Whatever la….
Proton maa… What to expect? :P
Reliablity and bad luck haunted the Satria Neo again and again…..sigh.
nobody get great luck everytime..
so… other teams never had bad luck eih?
typical malaysian mentality haunted the posts again and again.
=P
P1 should stick to IRC instead of wasting their money…errr ppls money on F1. Furthermore they can test ‘their own’ CARS instead of of other manufactured cars with P1 stickers on them, TATs totally LAME
i’ll bet your saying this cause you don’t even have a money to buy car lol
F1 is Lotus, thou funded by Proton. It might be bought over by Toyoda in the future after Danny Bahaha betray them. Bwahahahaha
Good to know that Proton design studio did well for the styling, thumbs up to them……!
nextime…nextime..in year 2035 haha
renault engine no good
change to AMG engine.. then problem settle
bashers will go like this:
when the Neo S2000 wins .. they will say :
* the only thing proton with that car is its chassis, everything else not proton’s
when the Neo S2000 got technical failures.. they will say:
* proton not reliable ! .. (but then again, the only thing proton with that car is the chassis said them) ..
that is bcoz P1’s money is coming from bashers…
i just want comment this, but u already post….hahaha
Should send in “James” aka the Stig
I agree!! “James May” had tested it in last season’s TG, he looked like he loved it! :D
frankly, Proton’s styling is not that bad, it really catches a lot of attention from people~ my pledge is, I hope they can really improve with the interior styling~ but then, I still love my Neo CPS, really a bargain for it’s price!
the only sad thing is how our G’s policy made local cars expensive! they said they want to protect the local automotive industry, but it is useless if they still impose tax on local cars~ what sort of ‘protection’ is that?
i believe proton can do better with the same amount of money if the tax is removed or imposed at very minimal amount… now when they want to put a price on their cars, they have to think the pockets that need to be fed too, it is just we do not have evidence but yet it is very obvious~
How about Neo CPS R3 yellow in colour just like the rally car.
Proton Satria Neo, the most handsome car among the rally cars.