Tour de Corse : OMV World Rally Team
Xavier Pons cuts a splendid figure on the first day of the “Rallye de France – Tour de Corse”. The only drawback for the 25-year-old Spaniard of the OMV World Rally Team was a spin on the first special stage. Afterwards everything went according to the plans of Pons and co-driver Carlos del Barrio. The gratifying intermediate result: place 10 – only 23 seconds behind eighth place and WRC points.
Feeling better than ever
Corsica is a place where Xavier Pons really feels at home. The Spanish OMV driver manages to keep up with several works drivers and to even leave some behind in his sixth assignment with the Citroen Xsara WRC prepared by Kronos Racing.
Thus the OMV duo Pons/del Barrio is lying in excellent tenth place after four of twelve special stages (i.e. 121,34 km). Pons: “We had a spin on the first SS and thereby surely lost 20 seconds. But then things got better and better. I`ve always been convinced that we can be very fast on tarmac with the Citroen. Now we are proving it.“ And there are only 23 seconds missing on WRC points – which are the goal for the next two days.
Each special stage counts
Only twelve special stages are being completed at the Rallye de France, which means that each separate stage is of even more importance than normally. Thus the special stages are of above-average length, as are the intermissions. Pons: “You have to take care to remain focussed all the time. There are so many turns that each tenth of a second counts.“


Tags: corsica, omv, xavier-pons,