Proton completes Geko Ypres Rally in Belgium
The grueling Geko Ypres Rally in Belgium came to its conclusion last weekend with only 61 out of 124 participating cars successfully crossing the finish line of this two-day 18-stage rally. Winning the rally was Freddy Loix in a Skoda Fabia S2000, with Bryan Bouffier in a Peugeot 207 S2000 and Hans Weijs in another Fabia S2000 completing the podium places.
Among the 61 finishers of the rally was Proton’s Swedish driver PG Andersson, who secured a 19th place finish for his Satria Neo S2000. It was Andersson’s first appearance in Geko Ypres, and he almost lost it, pushing wide in the final special stage when only 8.9 seconds from a top ten finish. Losing 24 seconds and with a damaged left rear wheel, Andersson eventually completed the rally in 19th.
Things were less fortunate for Andersson’s team mate Giandomenico Basso, two-time European Rally Champion who boasts a Geko Ypres winners medal in his trophy cabinet. Finishing the first day placing 11th, Basso came out on the second day pushing for a top ten position, but was undone in SS7 when he hit a low and hidden brick wall that put his Neo S2000 out of commission.
Stretching 287km long, the Geko Ypres rally is raced on asphalt along the Belgian country side, and its conditions are made even more challenging due to often unpredictable weather, and that five of its special stages are expected to run in fading light or complete darkness. Only 90 out of 124 participating cars completed the first day of the rally, which saw light rain and temperatures of 12 degrees Celcius.
Amongst early casualties of the rally were Jan Kopecky, who crashed his Skoda during shakedown the day before and injuring his co-driver Petr Stary. Local favourite Thiery Neuville was out of contention as early as the first stage, as was Andreas Mikkelsen, another Skoda driver.
“Despite the misfortunes and missing out on a top 10 finish, we come away from what was clearly a very tough and treacherous rally, achieving tremendous progress in terms of the development of the Satria Neo S2000. Basso’s 11th placing on the first day and Andersson’s push from 19th to 11th on the final day of rallying clearly demonstrated the car’s potential and it gave us a real competitive assessment of where we are currently in terms of development and how much more we need to do in the IRC,” said Head of Proton Motorsports Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood.
Pictures: Official Proton release.
