Reuche wins the RIV and takes the 2011 Swiss Rally Championship
Laurent Reuche (Peugeot 207 S2000) won the 52nd edition of the Rallye International du Valais. With this victory, he is crowned the 2011 Swiss Rally Champion. Eight-time winner of the RIV, Olivier Burri finishes second in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. The event was marked by a long list of retirements.
At the end of the first of the three legs - the rally route totalled 709 km with 17 special stages, youngster Laurent Reuche, 36, from Le Locle), was third overall. Then a lot happened. The special stage of « Les Cols » - 37 kilometres - and the following stages sealed the fate of the race. None of the top drivers escaped unhurt from these stages. Ivan Ballinari broke the alternator belt of his Peugeot and Nicolas Althaus (Peugeot 207 S2000) lost six minutes because of a puncture that he had to change, losing a lot of time as the jack did not work properly.
Laurent Reuche also lost three minutes to the leader, Ivan Ballinari, after a puncture in SS 5, dropping to six overall. Thanks to his experience, Reuche made up time quickly. On the demanding roads around Martigny and Sion, Reuche did not make any mistakes and the end of his race was beyond reproach. The driver from Neuchâtel climbed to second at the end of SS 7 after the retirement of Portuguese Bernardo Sousa (Peugeot 207 S2000), a habitué in the World Rally Championship. In the eighth special stage, Laurent Reuche demonstrated his talent by passing eight-time Rallye du Valais winner Olivier Burri (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) to take the lead.
From then, Laurent Reuche remained in command until the end of the event. During this third and last leg, he drove without taking risks and using the brain and with six fastest times he managed to save a 2min04.6sec over second placed, Olivier Burri. With this third victory in the season Laurent Reuche reached Martigny winning the Rallye international du Valais and being crowned the 2011 Swiss Rally Champion!
The third of this Swiss trio was Nicolas Althaus (Peugeot 207 S2000) who collected a puncture and lost more than three minutes to drop to 13th overall. Finally, his five stage wins allowed him to climb to fifth overall.
In the last 11-kilometre stage, Swiss Urs Hunziker (Subaru Impreza) had to surrender his third place to the Czech driver Antonin Tlustak (Skoda Fabia S2000). Hunziker was therefore out of the podium for only 2.2 seconds.
Former ski champion and local hero Philippe Roux (Peugeot 207 S2000) finished seventh overall behind Antonio Galli (Citroën DS3).
