Snetterton victory means Shedden takes championship lead to Fife
Gordon Shedden will head to his home rounds of the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill in 12 days leading the title race after a dramatic last-gasp win at Snetterton.
The 38-year-old from Auchterarder, bidding to win the title for a fourth time, and third in succession, won a thrilling final race in Norfolk.
Having struggled with power issues in Saturday’s qualifying, Shedden started yesterday’s opening race at Snetterton from 21st on the 30-car grid. Having powered through to finish 13th, he then made another six places in the day’s second race to finish seventh.
Starting from second on the reversed grid for the final race, he chased the leading BMW of former champion Andrew Jordan for 11 laps. But, on the penultimate lap, the BMW lost power, allowing Shedden to cruise to his third win of the year.
“It’s been a strange, tough weekend,” the Scot admitted afterwards. “If someone had said after qualifying that I’d be heading to Knockhill in a couple of weeks still leading the championship, I’d have bitten their hand off. This sets up a fantastic weekend at Knockhill.”
Shedden heads to the Fife circuit on 12-13 August leading the BMW duo of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard by two and four points respectively.
Ash Sutton, who won the opening two races at Snetterton to take the championship lead, was forced to retire from the final race after a collision. But he heads to Knockhill just 11 points behind Shedden.
Meanwhile, Esapekka Lappi secured his first World Rally Championship victory by winning Rally Finland. Finn Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm finished 36 seconds ahead of Welshman Elfyn Evans and sealed the Toyota team’s second success in their first season back in WRC. “Amazing, amazing”, Lappi told Rally Finland’s official website. “What a rally. I have to really say a big thanks to the team and to [team-mate] Tommi [Makinen]. They built such a fast car in such a short time. I have big, big respect for them.”
Lappi held a 49.1-second overnight lead in his Toyota Yaris over fellow novice Teemu Suninen and overcame a scare on the final morning when he was able to replace a damaged a rear wheel on the penultimate stage.
Closest challenger Jari-matti Latvala was forced to retire on Saturday afternoon when his car’s electronic control unit failed, while Suninen’s highspeed spin one stage from the end saw him slip to fourth place.
Suninen, in only his second race at the highest level, had been battling for second place with Evans’ Ford Fiesta and another Finn, Juho Hanninen, who finished third.
Irishman Craig Breen finished fifth in his Citroen C3 ahead of Thierry Neuville, who has moved top of the championship table, level with Sebastien Ogier, who crashed out on Friday morning and was unable to restart due to co-driver Julien Ingrassia’s concussion.