SUZUKI SWIFT drivers finish 2-3-4-7 in Rally d'Italia - Sardegna
The Rally d’Italia - Sardegna was the first event of the 2009 JWRC Championship to be nominated by all Junior competitors. The event was held around Olbia region, one of the most beautiful areas of the Italian Island. Of the nine JWRC participants, a total of no less than 4 Suzuki SWIFT S1600 cars were present. 3 of these represented by Suzuki Sport Europe and driven by competitors; Car No.31 - Aaron Burkart, No.32 - Michal Kosciuszko and No.33 Simone Bertolotti and the 4th Suzuki SWIFT S1600 driven by Yoann Bonato - the young Frenchman - supported by SUZUKI France.
After winning the JWRC class in the previous two events in Portugal and Argentina, Michal Kosciuszko began the event as the current leader of the Junior World Rally Championship by 4 points ahead of Aaron Burkart and 10 points ahead of the Citroen driver Martin Prokop, who had already missed out on one more event than the Suzuki Sport Europe drivers. This tough point situation creates anticipation for an immense continued battle for the Championship title as the season progresses.
On Day 1, the battle for the lead between Michal Kosciusko and Martin Prokop began from the very first stage with the Citroen driver choosing maximum attack as his preferred approach. The Suzuki crews of Kosciusko and Burkhart instead choosing to take a cautious approach considering the rather unforgiving nature of the rough gravel roads. This tactic proved to be beneficial to both the Suzuki crews as problems, namely electrical, to the Citroen of Prokop caused him to lose time and fall down the leaderboard to 3rd place. Both Suzuki SWIFTs performed faultlessly and without any technical troubles. Eventually, Day 1 was to end with the Suzuki of Michal Kosciuszko in second place only 15 seconds behind the leading JWRC competitor - Renault driver Alessandro Bettega, while Aaron Burkart stayed closely behind Martin Prokop in 4th. During Day 2, Michal was able to catch up Bettega and regain the lead with Prokop 16 seconds behind him in 2nd place . The Suzuki of Aaron Burkart remained in 3rd, and Yoann Bonato in the 3rd Suzuki moved up to 4th place. The Suzuki newcomer; Simone Bertolotti finished Day 2 in 8th place.
On Day3, the battle went down to the wire eventually ending favourably for Citroen driver, Martin Prokop who was able to win the 2009 Rally d'Italia - Sardegna by 13.2 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed Suzuki of Michal Kosciuszko, whilst the Suzuki's of Aaron Burkart and Yoann Bonato finished 3rd and 4th respectively. The 4th Suzuki of Simone Bertolotti's was unable to improve position sufficiently to catch the cars in front of him, but he was able to retain the experience of the event with his new car and finish this challenging event in a solid 7th position.
Comment from Michal Kosciuszko
"It has been a really difficult rally for us. We have tried our best but this time Martin was unbelievably fast and he deserved the win. Our Suzuki SWIFT S1600 and team has worked perfectly so I am very happy with this. We are still leading the championship by 6 points ahead out team-mate Aaron, and 8 points ahead of Martin. The next Rally will be in my country, so I am sure that this points gap between us should be greater after Rally Poland."
Comment from Aaron Burkart
"Before this rally we decided not to take big risks, this strategy proved to be successful. We have finished 3rd, scored 6 points and this was our main target. During the Rally there was more than 40 degrees in the car, so it was not easy to keep concentration, I didn't want to make any mistakes. My Suzuki SWIFT S1600 was working perfectly for me in this hot weather without any real technical trouble, however during Day3 due to a simple broken wire we almost lost the electric power in our rally car. We were however able to return to the service park in time and the team were able to repair this small trouble perfectly."
Comment from Simone Bertolotti
"I know I am new to this championship and also don't have so much experience in the driver seat of S1600 car so far. Therefore, I still have to learn many things, but I am disappointed. I feel sorry that I was unable to show my performance in my home country. It might have been better, but I can promise that in Poland I will try again. Now I know how I can improve my performance and I am looking forward to make a better result in Poland"
Comments from Yasuhiro Ishii (Team Manager of SUZUKI SPORT EUROPE)
"On every JWRC event so far this year we have had 2 Suzuki SWIFT S1600's on the podium, again in Sardegna our strong performance has continued again with two Suzuki's in the top 3. Of course, every time our target is to win, but I am still happy with 3 SUZUKIs in the top 4. Michal and Aaron are leading the championship, and now we are concentrating on the next event; Rally Poland where again our target shall be to fight for the podium and boost our points position even further I am also pleased with the performance on Day 3 of Simone.He made some big steps forward with his driving and we shall look forward to working again with him soon."
