Michal Kosciuszko showed close battle in his home round, Rally Poland

From June 25th to 28th, as 6th JWRC 2009 round, ORLEN Platinum Rally Poland was taken place based in Mikolajki in North East Poland. From SUZUKI SPORT EUROPE team, Michal Kosciuszko and Simone Bertolotti, two young drivers attended with SUZUKI SWIFT S1600. Especially for Michal, this rally had special meanings since his home country. He has been in the spotlight among Polish media and this year’s his result brought him new sponsor, PKN ORLEN and he got his SWIFT S1600 with new look, blue coloured.

 

 

On Day 1, Dutch young Renault driver, Kevin Abbring was successful in taking lead with his Clio R3 with 2 litre engine, which character is very suitable for Polish high-speed stages. Michal kept driving without any push and stayed in 2nd. For the JWRC drivers’ championship, Michal needed to win this event but the most important task for him was being ahead of Citröen driver Martin Prokop. Michal made Martin in 3rd position at the end of the day with 7.1 second behind. For Simone, his task was to complete this event. He learnt many things from Polish high-speed gravel stage which was almost first experience for him.

Michal drove on Day 2 same as the previous day to be ahead of Martin but eventually he caught Kevin in the middle of day. Predicted this days’ stage character and weather condition, the team had changed the setting of his SWIFT S1600 and it worked well.

On final day, the close contest between Michal and Kevin still continued. However, Michal unluckily hit a rock on SS16 which had been hidden at first run. He went off and hit the tree then it caused damage on the radiator. He kept driving but the damage caused the engine over heated and he had to stop there.

In fact, Michal injured his right hand during JWRC official test and he has suffered from severe pain since then. Despite of this injury, Michal showed us unbelievably brilliant driving with this pain. Also, it must have been huge burden for him with the close battle with Kevin and the different stage condition from usual, which he knows very well, because of rain which had rained previous days. His rival, Martin finished in 2nd and at the result two young drivers have scored same points in total, 36 points. Simone finished in 5th without any trouble and scored 4 points.

 

 

Comment from Michal Kosciuszko
“I can’t really say how disappointed I am because it was my home rally. I wanted to perform well in my country. The car has been fantastic and I am very sorry for my retirement. I could have good battle with Abbring but I hit a rock and went off, then the radiator lost cooling water. Next Finland Rally is my last event for me. Even Martin has two events but I will not give up the championship title.”

Comment from Simone Bertolotti
“I am really happy I could finish without any trouble. Polish stages were very fast and fantastic. I tried new driving style during this event and I could learn a lot of things. I am looking forward to trying new driving style in next Finland Rally.”

Comments from Yasuhiro Ishii (Team Manager of SUZUKI SPORT EUROPE)
“I am really sorry Michal could not finish in his home rally but it is not the end of the championship. There is still chance for Michal and Aaron to get the JWRC championship title. Clio R3 with 2 litre engine will also perform very well in next event, Rally Finland which has similar character to Rally Poland so I guess we will have close battle again so as we will have test and take the surest measures for it.”