Renault Sport entered 2 R5 Alpine Group 2 for this race: car No. 6 for Jean Ragnotti and his co-pilot Jean-Marc Andrié, which we have decided to reproduce. And the number 39 of the Corsican driver Jean-Pierre Manzagol and his co-pilot Jean-François Filippi but who was not classified. The 1979 Tour de Corse takes place on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 November. This is the 10th round of the 1979 World Rally Cham-pionship out of a total of 12.
The start is given from the place of Austerlitz in Ajaccio to sixty competitors. Bernard Béguin’s Porsche takes the lead of the race ahead of Bernard Darniche’s favourite Lancia Stratos. Thirteen crews have already retired after the first special event. And after only three timed events, Darniche stays alone at the forefront with a 9-minute lead over Nicolas’ Talbot and a 12-minute lead over Ragnotti’s Renault 5.
But Nicolas wasted ¾ of an hour on the last part due to a cut elec-trical wire and falls to 12th place. Despite being 27 minutes late, Ragnotti, who has led Group 2 since the start, takes 2nd place, three minutes ahead of Jean-Pierre Manzagol’s Renault 5.
The second step of Saturday starts from Bastia. The advance of Darniche is such that although he took few risks, he strengthens his lead. Behind, the Renault 5s fight for the places of honour. If Ragnotti manage to waste only a few minutes more to keep the final overall second place (and first of Gr2), Manzagol, confronted with a problem of gearbox which the Renault assistance successes however to fix before the special Calvi-Aviso, wastes still 10 minutes, before he gives up a few kilometres after the start of this one. The Porsche n° 16 of Moreau and n°29 of Coppier took 3rd and 4th places.
