Second time lucky!
Argentine Raul Martinez finally clinched the FIA Codasur zone championship when he finished second on the Pucon Rally in Chile in his Subaru Impreza, behind teammate Sebastian Abramian. Martinez had hoped to win the title on the previous round, the Sucre Rally in Bolivia, which he provisionally won, but several weeks after the event he was given a ten minute time penalty for a servicing infringement which dropped him well back. This was the fourth time Martinez had finished second-best Codasur driver, after the Curitiba Rally in Brazil, then Huancayo in Peru and Encarnacion in Paraguay. One final event in the series remains - the Punta Dl East Rally in Uruguay,

Giandomenico Basso two points away from the European Title
Basso won the Antibes Cote d’Azur Rally, the penultimate round of the European Championship and his last remaining rival Michal Solowow finished second. The third remaining challenger Corrado Fontana went off the road. The final round is the Valais Rally in Switzerland. The event was used as a grand finale for the international Citroen Racing Trophy, which was won by the Belgian Thierry Neuville. Nineteen crews in identical C2 R2 cars took part, Neuville finished fourth overall. His two main challengers Marc Amourette and Brian Bouffier both went off the road on the treacherously icy conditions.

Other news
Bruno Magalhaes won the Mortagua Rally in Portugal and is now five points ahead of fellow Peugeot driver Vitor Pascoal with one event to go. Subaru driver Norihiko Katsuka scored another win in the All-Japan national series, this time at the Highland Masters Rally, but Mitsubishi diver Fumio Nutahara still leads the series.

Busy week ahead: Wednesday October 21 sees the autumn FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting, on Friday October 23 we expect to know who will be the next FIA President.

 
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