François Delecour is back into third place on Rally Liepāja-Ventspils despite a trip through a field on the first Swecon stage in his Visit Romania-backed Peugeot 207 Super 2000.
Delecour was 15.5s quicker than Alexey Lukyanuk, who reported making a few mistakes on the 21.34-kilometre ice-coated test. Delecour’s advantage is now 0.9s with four stages of the FIA European Rally Championship round remaining.
In the battle for first place, Jari Ketomaa was one of several drivers to express their concern that the stage finish was located approximately 200 metres later than indicated in the event road book. Despite driving slowly to the end of the run, he was 1.8s quicker than close rival Craig Breen. His lead is now 14.1s.
Jan Černý continues to impress in his family-run ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000, setting the third fastest time to climb ahead of Vytautas Švedas, who completed the stage with a missing wing mirror after he was delayed passing Siim Plangi’s stricken Mitsubishi Lancer. Plangi is understood to have gone off the road and damaged a wheel. Meanwhile, a transmission issue is slowing Vitaliy Pushkar.
János Puskádi lost time when he missed a junction: “This stage was extremely slippery and I was scary all the time. We missed one junction and had to reverse. I lost a lot of time.”
GPD Mit Metal Racing Team’s Antonín Tlusťák, whose pace was compromised on leg two by a poor set of pacenotes, said: “It was a good stage, but surprisingly a lot of ice. Yesterday we had bit troubles with pacenotes, now it’s okay. We have to finish."
Finn Risto Immonen has moved ahead of Stéphane Lefebvre in the ERC 2WD Championship by a slender margin of 0.4s despite reporting five or 10 moments. Lefebvre reported a problem selecting gears on his Peugeot 208 R2. Title leader Hannes Danzinger retired on the previous stage with a broken water pump on his Renault Clio R3. Elwis Chentre is also in trouble with his ŠKODA Fabia R2 suffering a suspected clutch issue.
Stage 12, Kuldīga 1, gets underway at 10:10hrs.
High drama in Latvian ERC 2WD battle as Immonen takes lead
There has been high drama in the ERC 2WD Championship section of Rally Liepāja-Ventspils this morning.
Risto Immonen, in a Citroën C2 R2 Max, has snatched the lead from long-term pacesetter Stéphane Lefebvre, while title leader Hannes Danzinger failed to complete Sunday’s first test after his Renault Clio R3 suffered a reported water pump failure. Meanwhile, Elwis Chentre, currently second to Danzinger in the ERC 2WD Championship standings, is being hampered by a suspected clutch issue.
Immonen’s advantage over Lefebvre is 0.4s after the Frenchman reported problems changing gear on his Peugeot 208 R2 when he reached the finish of stage 12, Swecon 1.
Latvian youngster Ralfs Sirmacis took full advantage of Danzinger’s misfortune to move into third place in his Ford Fiesta R2. However, countryman and fellow Fiesta driver Emīls Blūms is out due to a broken gearbox.