The most important Belgian round on the calendar concluded with an excellent result for Bernd Casier, Fred Miclotte and the Volkswagen Polo Super 2000. At Rally Ypres, they finished in a rightly deserved fourth place amongst the most highly competitive field of the season so far, with 18 Super 2000 cars at the start.

For their part, Raphael Auquier and Cedric Pirotte finished in a promising tenth position.

Casier would have preferred to start his rally week-end in better fashion, after an off during Thursday's shakedown marked the beginning of a late-evening repair party for the team.

"The mechanics accomplished a feat," related Casier. "Their excellent work allowed me to have a car in perfect shape. This hard-fought fourth place is theirs by right."

Within the Belgian VW Club, pride could be seen on every face.

"For two days, Bernd and Fred pushed their Polo into the fight," said team boss J-G Mal-Voy, visibly relieved that the battle was over. "The fight with the other contenders has once again shown that our Volkswagen can do it."

"At the start of the final loop, Bernd was even in provisional third place and threw all his strength into the final 50 kilometres without committing a mistake. They perfectly resisted to the pressure and held Patrick Snijers at bay, a four-time winner," Mal-Voy pointed out.

"All through the week-end, we thought a lot of Hans Goudezeune, whose passion for rally was forged around this event," Mal-Voy shared.

He was referring to the accidental death of the team engineer during testing last March. Hans Goudezeune was sitting next to Larry Cols, who is still recuperating.

"This fourth place has a particular flavour," said Mal-Voy. "It is charged with a lot of emotion for every team member present at Ypres."