Catalunya : Skoda Motorsport
Jan Kopecky heads the Škoda Motorsport World Rally Team drivers in a points-scoring eighth place after day two of the Catalunya-Costa Daurada Rally. Despite a failing gearbox on the day`s final stage Armin Schwarz finished the leg 11th and remains poised to score manufacturers` championship points.
Jan set 10th fastest time with the Fabia WRC 05 on today`s second stage to move into 12th place before moving up to 10th place on the next stage. Seventh fastest on SS10 took him into ninth overall and he consolidated that position with sixth fastest time on SS11. Finally he set another seventh fastest time on the day`s last stage to go eighth and will start tomorrow just seven seconds behind Antony Warmbold.

Alex Bengue was forced to retire from a points position with gearbox failure on the second of today`s six stages. He had set a good time on the day`s opening stage before spectator problems caused it to be cancelled but stopped 10kms into the next, unable to select gears. He will not restart tomorrow.

Jan Kopecký
“It was a better day today and we set some good times but it was really tough this morning. Some stages were dry at the start and the finish but wet in the middle. When we got the tyre choice right everything felt fine and I could push hard with confidence. Tomorrow will be interesting!”

Armin Schwarz
“I think we`ve tried everything to find the cause of the handling problems we`ve been having on these two events. The gearbox lost a couple of gears and that made both the final stage and the uphill drive into the service area very difficult.”

Alex Bengue
“Everything seemed OK for the first 10kms but then I tried to change from fourth to fifth and nothing happened. The engine revs went high but there was no chance to find a gear, either with the automatic system or the manual one. It`s very disappointing.”

Martin Muehlmeier, Head of Škoda Motorsport
“Obviously it was disappointing to lose Alex today as technical failures have been quite rare on our car in recent events. Jan has driven very well today and with Armin in the points as well we must be optimistic for tomorrow`s final leg.”

Tomorrow`s final leg features just three stages (totalling 66.08kms) to the north west of Salou. The rally finishes in Salou at 1330 CET.


Tags: skoda, bengue, spain, catalunya,