Giancarlo leads local pack in World drivers’ rankings

Reigning national champion Davite Giancarlo and his navigator Sylvia Vindevogel were ranked top Rwandan driver and co-driver, respectively, in the new 2013 World Rally Ranking released late last month. Giancarlo and Vindevogel collected 688 points to come ahead of Elefter Mitraros and Paganin Paolo, who have 264 points; and Christaks Fitidis and Eric Nzamwita who have been competing in the Uganda National Rally championship, with 248 points. There are currently 930 Drivers and 974 Co-drivers from more than 80 nations who obtained the required results to enter the ranking.France-born Sebastien Ogier top the ranking with 5445 points, while Thierry Neuville, from Belgium, came in second with 5385 points;Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala came third with 5385 points.Giancarlo, the Mt. Gorilla Rally winner, missed the last round of the 2013 Africa Rally Championship held over the weekend in Madagascar, to end his season in third position, behind Uganda’s Jas Mangat and Jassy Singh of Zimbabwe.In the first seven rounds, the Italy-born driver finished just two; he abandoned all others due to mechanical problems.He bowed out of the Rally Bandama in January in Cote d’Ivoire, Sasol rally in South Africa in April, finished second in Zambia International rally in May, before crashing out of Tanzania rally in June, Kenya Safari Rally in July and Uganda Pearl rally in August, and then bouncing back to win the Mt. Gorilla in September on home soil.

Sports

Giancarlo leads local pack in World drivers’ rankings