Vouilloz fastest on Sata Rallye Azores shakedown

WIWVOUILLOZ%3b040 Vouilloz fastest on Sata Rallye Azores shakedown

Photo: ©willyweyens-rallyworld

Kronos, Peugeot Belgium, driver Nicolas Vouilloz posted fastest time on the Rally Azores shakedown test held at Remedios today.

He was 0.3s faster than Peugeot UK's Kris Meeke with local star Bruno Magalhaes 3rd quickest, all three were driving Peugeot 207 S2000s. Freddy Loix was 4th in his 207 with Franz Wittmann fifth and first non-Peugeot runner.

Conrad Rautenbach was sixth in the PH Sport prepared Peugeot 207 on his first run in S2000 machinery. Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen posted seventh and eighth fastest times respectively in their Grifone run works Abarth Puntos.

Kris Meeke commented during the week to the Belfast Telegraph about the task ahead:

It should be a level playing field for all of us although the rally is part of the Portuguese championship and some of them, especially Bruno Magalhaes and Vitor Pascoal, have a fair bit of experience of the island and will both be driving S2000 Peugeots.

My target will be to finish as high as possible and hopefully ahead of my own team-mate Freddie (Loix) so I can narrow the gap on him before we go to his home rally in Ypres.

But this is an exceptional line-up with six Kronos Peugeots in the field as well as the Skodas of Jan Kopecky and Juho Hanninen and the Fiats of Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen. It is looking very unpredictable.

The works Skoda's didn't get times for the shakedown test but both drivers had two runs on the stage.

Sata Rallye Azores 2009 Shakedown Times

1	8	Nicolas Vouilloz	Nicolas Klinger	Peugeot 207 S2000	00:01:58,4
2	7	Kris Meeke	Paul Nagle	Peugeot 207 S2000	00:01:58,7
3	4	Bruno Magalhães	Carlos Magalhães	Peugeot 207 S2000	00:01:58,9
4	6	Freddy Loix	Frédéric Miclotte	Peugeot 207 S2000	00:02:00,9
5	11	Franz Wittmann	Bernhard Ettel	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	00:02:02,6
6	3	Conrad Rautenbach	Daniel Barritt	Peugeot 207 S2000	00:02:03,0
7	2	Giandomenico Basso	Mitia Dotta	Fiat Punto S2000	00:02:03,7
8	10	Anton Alen	Timo Alanne	Fiat Punto S2000	00:02:04,2
9	19	Pedro Meireles	Jorge Henriques	Subaru Impreza	00:02:07,2
10	16	Fernando Peres	José Pedro Silva	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	00:02:09,7
11	17	Bernardo Sousa	Jorge Carvalho	Fiat Punto S2000	00:02:09,7
12	12	Julien Maurin	Gilles Thimonier	Volkswagen Polo S2000	00:02:11,2
13	15	Adruzilo Lopes	José Janela	Subaru Impreza N14	00:02:12,8
14	28	Nuno Barroso Pereira	Nuno R. Silva	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	00:02:14,8
15	22	Ricardo Teodósio	Pedro Conde	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII MR	00:02:15,0
16	34	Luís Pimentel	Bruno Pimentel	Subaru Impreza STI	00:02:17,1
17	21	Pedro Rodrigues	Daniel Araújo	Subaru Impreza WRX	00:02:18,2
18	18	Carlos Costa	Fernando Nunes	Citroën C2 R2 GT	00:02:21,7
19	23	Manuel Villa	Daniele Michi	Fiat Punto S1600	00:02:22,0
20	20	Sérgio Silva	Miguel Bernardo	Peugeot 206 GTI	00:02:22,7
21	40	Ricardo Pereira	Pedro Castro	Skoda Fabia TDI	00:02:26,7
22	24	Denis Millet	Julien Vial	Peugeot 207 RC Rallye	00:02:27,2
23	39	Paulo Rego	N.N.	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	00:02:27,6
24	37	Bruno Amaral	Paulo Rego	Citroën C2 R2 GT	00:02:33,7
25	38	Paulo Pereira	Nuno Moura	Skoda Fabia TDI	00:02:45,8
26	31	Raquel Rodrigues	Diana Coelho	Skoda Fabia TDI	00:03:22,2