27 October 2003 - 00:27 Thiry takes victory in Rally d'Antibes

Bruno Thiry has won the 38th Rallye Antibes-Azur, the final co-efficient 20 round of the European Championships. After 16 demanding stages, he was 25.1 seconds ahead of his arch rival Miguel Campos who now leads in the race for the European crown. He has 1400 points from 8 rallyes against Thiry's 1320 points from 7. The Belgian now drives his last rally at the Condroz in Belgium, which is a co-efficient 10 event. If he wins that and collects the 100 points, or 80 points for second place, then he will be the new Champion.
 
Thiry`s previous experience from his many World Championship events in the area, stood him in good stead and was the significant difference between him and Campos who was driving the rally for the first time.

This event, which could equally be called the Monte Carlo of The European Championships, didn`t begin well for Campos who was still getting over a head cold. He stalled at the start of Stage 1 and Thiry took an immediate 14 second lead. Thiry won all 4 of the opening days stages and had a 19.7sec overnight advantage.

Day 2 continued to go Thiry's way and he won 6 of the days 8 stages. His only worrying moment came when he had to change gearboxes, but his service crew did the job with seconds to spare and he didn`t incur any time penalties. At the end of the leg he had increased his lead to 49.3secs.

Today, the second stage of the day, Col de Turini, was cancelled at the last minute and Thiry, who had chosen a combination of slicks and intermediate tires, found himself at a disadvantage. Campos, who had chosen just slicks, closed the gap by 16.7secs. Turini was cancelled for the second running as well, and although Campos won again, this time it was just by 4.9secs as Thiry took no chances.

So now Thiry knows what he has to do... win Condroz for the third straight year, or at least come second.

The Czech Champion Vaclav Pech, finished in third place, 9min 37secs after the leader and Tim Van Parijs was 4th with Richard Bartolini finishing 5th as the best Gr.N driver.

38-th Rallye Antibes-Azur Results:

1. Bruno Thiry  Peugeot 206 WRC      3hr 13min 38.7sec
2. Miguel Campos Peugeot 206 WRC  3hr 14min 03.8sec
3. Vaclav Pech  Ford Focus WRC        3hr 24min 10.6sec