Shah Alam, 15 September 2009 - Team Proton Europe put in a promising performance on Spain's Rally Principe de Asturias. Development of the all-new Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 has been an on-going process with Proton having an uphill battle to match the performance of their more established European rivals. The hardwork put in by the team has closed the gap to its more establised IRC rivals to less than one second per km on tarmac. 

"There's no doubt we have made a big step forward this weekend." "The improvements to the dampers and engine are reflected in our times compared to Rally Madeira and that just motivates the team to work even harder before San Remo." said Proton driver, Guy Wilks.

Guy and co-driver Phil Pugh were fifth in the Proton Satria before a broken driveshaft and a puncture dropped them to tenth on Friday's last stage. They climbed to ninth on Saturday's first stage but went off the road on SS11.

Phil said: "We had a bit of an overshoot on a left four, which had a lot of gravel on it. We beached the car on the end of a barrier and just couldn't get reverse, so we spent 15 minutes jacking it out. There was no damage, just a front bumper missing, but we were so unlucky."

Guy bounced back with a string of solid times - including joint fourth fastest on SS15.  Due to the time lost earlier, the team was unfortunate to finally cross the finish line in 19th place in a field of 80 entries.

Jan Kopecky won the rally for Skoda and now trails IRC points leader Kris Meeke (Peugeot) by one point with two rounds remaining.

The Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 will next see IRC action in Sanremo, Italy on 24-26 September and on the APRC-Rally Indonesia on 02-04 October.