CODASUR victory in Bolivia comes after strong all-round performance

Automotor Rally Team pairing Fabrizio Zaldivar and Marcelo Der Ohannesian collected a second win of the championship-defending FIA CODASUR Rally Championship season at Rally de Santa Cruz in Bolivia (August 23-25).

The i20 N Rally2 crew were front-runners throughout the event, the third round of the South American series. However, that they only won one of the 12 competitive stages proves perfectly that their victory owed as much to consistency and avoiding serious issues as did outright speed on the stages.

That single fastest overall came on SS7, the final stage of Saturday’s running and the repeat pass through the longest stage of the event, came at a time when Zaldivar and Der Ohannesian were in the middle of a charge that would eventually put into the lead.

They had already regained second place on SS4 after briefly dropping to third, and over the next three stages they cut into the 16-second deficit to the lead before finally moving into the top spot when their rival faltered on SS9. His mistake presented Zaldivar and Der Ohanessian with the lead and cushion of over 30 seconds.

They were able to control their pace through the final loop of stages as their immediate rival was unable to close the gap. The victory collected back-to-back victories for the pair, after winning in Argentina in April as they continue to recover from a retirement at the opening round.

Two events remain in the season, with dates in Brazil and Uruguay completing the year.