Alastair Fisher maintained his slim hopes of winning the Junior World Rally Championship with a fourth place finish on last weekend’s Rally Germany.

The Trillick driver survived a puncture and treacherous road conditions to claim more valuable championship points that keep him in contention with two rounds remaining, but he now has to rely on others misfortune if he is to claim the title.

Alastair travelled to Germany reeling from the news that his close friend Timmy Cathcart had passed away on the Ulster Rally.

“Timmy was a good friend of mine and he will be sadly missed,” said Alastair. “I want to pass on my condolences to all his family and friends.” When the German event got underway Alastair made a good start in his Citroen posting a time only three seconds slower than series leader Stephane Lefebvre on the opening stage, but after a good start he found it hard to match the pace of the front runners in the class as the rally continued.

“It was a steady run,” he admitted. “We never really pushed too hard. I just didn’t really have the confidence to go flat out. Conditions were quite tricky and the stages were very dirty when we got the length. There were a lot of cuts, and gravel and mud pulled out. On some stages we were setting top three times, but then we seemed to struggle in the stages through the vineyards.” His hopes were further dented when he suffered a puncture on a long 452 kilometre stage through the military ranges.

With much of the stage still to be completed he was forced to stop and change the tyre at the side of the road, losing two and a half minutes to his rivals.

Frenchman Lefebvre went on to claim top points and cement his place at the top of the championship standings. Although Alastair can still mathematically wipe out his advantage, he was still ruing his non-finish in Portugal which has left him with a mountain to climb. “It’s a bit of a long shot now,” he acknowledged. “We are fifth but there is 12 points separating four of us and then Lefebvre has a good lead with his wins. Portugal has been the round that let us down at the start of the year. If we had finished that event we would only be three points off, but every round counts and there is no dropped scores. There are still two rounds to go and Lefebvre has to finish them, but we would need two very strong results to claw back the difference.” The series continues with Rally France at the end of September.