The last round of the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (November 3-5) takes teams to Cyprus where Thierry Neuville will be the best-placed 207 S2000 runner in the chase for the Drivers’ crown. Despite his limited experience of the event, the Peugeot Belgium- Luxemburg youngster will have just one aim, and that will be to defend his title chances to the very end.

Specific regulations
Ever since the creation of the series, the IRC’s promoters have sought to innovate to keep their championship at the forefront of the sport, and that has included frequent and spectacular live broadcasts of stages. This will again be the case in Cyprus, but the decision has also taken to run a points ‘coefficient’ system for this season’s last two rounds. Taking this into account, positions in the Drivers’ Championship are, in fact, much closer than they first appear, and six drivers can still hope to claim the title. Their ranks include the best-placed Peugeot runner Thierry Neuville. The trip to Cyprus wasn’t part of the Belgian’s original programme, but it has been added to enable him to fight for the top prize all the way.

Like Thierry Neuville, none of the other Peugeot subsidiary-backed drivers had plans to contest the year’s ultimate round. Frédéric Bertrand, manager of Peugeot Sport’s Customer Competition Department: ”We have become accustomed to seeing at least four 207 S2000s entered by our French, British, Portuguese and Belgian subsidiaries, but only the latter will have a car at the year’s finale. Bryan Bouffier still had a chance to win the title, too, but we needed to favour our best-placed driver in the provisional standings. We would have liked to have done more, but we took a reasoned decision to enter and could only enter just the one car. We wish Thierry and Nicolas the best of luck. Their mission won’t be easy, but they have to keep their challenge going all the way.”