ERC: Round 10 day three preview

Thiry pushing till the end--

The final day of the 38th Rallye Antibes-Azur is now underway, with the 34 teams remaining in the rally, on their way to the last 6 stages in the Alps. They begin with the short 7.96km Col de L'Able followed by 18km of the famous Col de Turini and finishing with Luceram, at 20.24km it is the longest of the day. Then for good measure, they have to drive them again.

Bruno Thiry, who has led from the start of the rally, has an overnight lead of 49.3secs over Miguel Campos. The Belgian driver has clearly showed that his previous experience of driving the demanding stages in the Alps, has been the difference between the two drivers. But it is not over yet, and with 92.4km of special stages still to go, anything can happen, as perhaps Campos is hoping.

"It snowed on the top of Turini yesterday and that will make tire choice interesting," said Thiry. "And when we were preparing the pace notes before the rally, we punctured on Luceram. However I have to keep pushing till the end, I cant afford not to."

"I drove Luceram in the Monte with Duval and we punctured on three tires," added co-driver Jean-Marc Fortin. "Fortunately we had mousse tires, but we don't have that luxury here in the European Championships."

Campos has only managed to win 2 of the 12 stages so far and one of those was when the Belgian had problems with his gearbox. Unless Thiry makes a mistake, punctures or has technical problems, then he must have resigned himself to taking second place.

Vaclav Pech is over 8 minutes behind in 3rd place and is using the rally for experience and 4th placed Tim Van Parijs in his mini Gr.A Mitsubishi is doing the same.

The winners are due back in Antibes at 15.45hrs and who they will be is still anyones guess.