Safari win boosts Mitsubishi's title bid

Mitsubishi closed to within ten points of Peugeot in the battle for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge manufacturers' crown when Carlo Tundo won his home event, the Safari Rally, in Kenya earlier this month.

The Safari Rally was the third round of this year's IRC. With Europe-based teams such as the Belgian Kronos Racing operation, Abarth, and the works Skoda team from Czech Republic not competing, it was left to the privateer outfits to take centre stage.

Driving a Mitsubishi Lancer, Tundo, from Kenya, beat expatriate Briton Alistair Cavenagh by a scant 11 seconds as Mitsubishi drivers filled the top-three podium placings, the first time it had achieved a maximum score in the IRC.

Cavenagh had won the opening superspecial in the Kenyan capital Nairobi but couldn't prevent Tundo from taking the lead. Peugeot now has 36 points compared to the 26 points accumulated by Mitsubishi. Tundo's heroics on home soil puts him equal second in the drivers' championship.

12 April 2009