At the end of the final event of the 2009 Junior World Rally Championship, the Rallye de España from October 1-4, the Suzuki Swift Super 1600 has not only finished on the podium, but also claimed two of the top three places in the overall championship standings.

Italian driver Simone Bertolotti was second in Spain, to claim sixth in the championship standings at the end of the year with the same number of points as the fifth-placed finisher. However, two wins earlier this season – in Portugal and Argentina – have given the absent Michal Kosciuszko second place in the final Junior World Championship rankings. The Polish driver, who chose not to nominate the Rallye de España as one of his scoring rounds, just missed out on the title by four points this year. Occupying third place in the championship at the end of the year is Germany’s Aaron Burkart, who was fifth in Spain.

As has been the case throughout the year, the Suzuki Swift Super 1600 was right on the pace from the start to the finish of the Rallye de España, demonstrating an impressive level of reliability on the fastest asphalt event of the year. Temperatures were warm on all three days of the Spanish event, peaking at 30 degrees Centigrade.

The Rallye de España is characterised by wide and sweeping asphalt roads, which make the rally more like a circuit racing. Pace notes are extremely important on this event, in order to describe the quickest racing line through all the corners and where it is safe to cut. For the two-wheel drive cars, such as the Suzuki Swift Super 1600, asphalt rallies are even more challenging because the four-wheel drive cars that run at the front of the field leave plenty of mud and gravel on the road while cutting corners. With less traction than their four-wheel drive equivalents, total commitment is needed to drive Super 1600 cars quickly on sealed surfaces.

This year’s Rallye de España, based once more in Salou to the south of Barcelona, adopted exactly the same route as it did in 2008. In total, crews tackled 353.62 competitive kilometres divided over three days and 18 sealed-surface stages.