ERC: Sports car ace Stephane Sarrazin takes first major rally win

Stephane Sarrazin claimed his first international rally victory by defeating Bryan Bouffier in the European Rally Championship finale in Corsica.

One of Toyota's World Endurance Championship aces and once a Formula 1 driver, Sarrazin was also a factory Subaru World Rally Championship driver in 2005-’06, and has made occasional Intercontinental Rally Challenge/ERC appearances alongside his sports car commitments in recent years.

Corsica was his first top-line rally of the 2014 season, and he led the majority of the event in a First Motorsport-run Ford Fiesta. A Sarrazin victory looked unlikely on Friday as 2013 Corsica winner Bouffier charged onto his tail following a minor puncture delay.

But Sarrazin felt his poor pace was simply due to a bad tire choice, and on Saturday he pulled away from Bouffier again. A quick spin for Bouffier on the penultimate stage settled things in Sarrazin's favour, and he won by 18.9 seconds.

Kevin Abbring completed the podium in the factory Peugeot, while team-mate Craig Breen retired with transmission problems on leg one.

ERC champion Esapekka Lappi crashed on the opening day. His Skoda team-mate Sepp Wiegand failed to make the event at all after an accident and fire in testing, which settled the title battle in Lappi's favour before the rally had even begun.

While a Toyota WEC driver won, Porsche WEC racer Romain Dumas finished fifth overall in the marque's 911 R-GT car, which will feature in the FIA's new mini-series for GT rally cars in 2015.