*Russian on top despite drama-filled day on Rally Poland’s high-speed roads *Huttunen second for Hyundai, Mareš completes overnight podium leading ERC1 Junior *Late woe in ERC3 Junior: Torn leads after Furuseth drops back *Nucita in control in Abarth Rally Cup, Alonso heads ERC2 classification

FIA European Rally Championship 2019, Round 4 of 8
PZM 76th Rally Poland leg one report: 29 June 2019

Despite a puncture, a broken damper, a replacement brake pipe and a troublesome clutch, reigning champion Alexey Lukyanuk leads the FIA European Rally Championship field after day one of PZM 76th Rally Poland with Jari Huttunen in second place.

Lukyanuk set an unbeatable pace for most of the day but was he occasionally held back by minor issues. A leaking damper luckily only cost him a few seconds on the morning loop-ending Mikołajki Arena superspecial, and he still won the second pass of Paprotki despite a front-right puncture.

That puncture also necessitated fitting a new brake pipe, a precaution against further damage, while the Russian also managed a clutch issue for the rest of the afternoon loop.

“It was a lot of drama today. The change of the balance of the car, the mistake in the fifth stage, in the end a broken brake line, clutch, damper, a lot of issues but somehow we survived and got through,” summarised Lukyanuk.

Behind him, ERC3 Junior graduate Huttunen, driving a Hyundai Motorsport N i20 R5 for the second time in as many years in Poland, holds second overall, focusing on securing a podium rather than risking it all to challenge Lukyanuk.

Huttunen has 12.8s in hand over ERC1 Junior leader Filip Mareš, who used the road position he earned by winning the Qualifying Stage to good effect by scoring seven top three stage times. ACCR Czech Rally Team’s young talent completes the overall podium in addition to his ERC1 Junior lead.

Top Polish duo Miko Marczyk (ŠKODA Polska Motorsport) and Łukasz Habaj (Sports Racing Technologies) are locked in a battle over fourth position, with Marczyk ahead of current ERC championship leader Habaj by a slim two seconds.

Their two-way battle was originally a three-way fight involving Team STARD’s Hiroki Arai, with Marczyk and Arai also duelling over second in ERC1 Junior. But a right-rear puncture on Paprotki 2 cost the Japanese more than 10s, dropping him to sixth overall and 18s behind Marczyk.

Arai fell behind then overtook seventh-placed Aron Domżała (TGS Worldwide) after his puncture, although he also benefited from trouble striking Chris Ingram (Toksport WRT).

A powersteering fault developed on the ERC1 Junior points leader’s car during Stare Juchy 2. Ingram lost only 10s initially, but the problem got worse on Olecko 2, having already started eight minutes late due to time taken for repairs between SS7 and SS8. He then lost nearly another two minutes after the power steering failed again, wrestling his car to the finish line with Lukyanuk right behind him.

That drama dropped Ingram to P15, nearly three minutes away from the top 10, although worse problems befell others on the same Olecko test. Marcin Słobodzian rolled his Rallytechnology Ford Fiesta R5 and retired, while Paulo Nobre took a trip into a ditch, damaging his Fabia R5 to the point local police wouldn’t allow it to take to the road section afterwards for safety reasons.

Mattias Adielsson moved up to eighth overall and fourth in ERC1 Junior after Ingram’s initial troubles, despite a missed pacenote that sent him into one of the many corn fields surrounding the stages. Ingram’s strife also promoted two of the Baumschlager Rallye & Racing-run cars into the top 10: Marijan Griebel in a Fabia was recovering from a slow start in the morning and is now up to ninth, while the MOL Racing Team Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 of Norbert Herczig now completes the top 10.

Herczig though will need to keep one eye on the driver behind him, Tomasz Kasperczyk (Tiger Energy Drink Rally Team), who is only 10.7s adrift. He fell behind both Griebel and Herczig on Stare Juchy 2 for an unusual reason: a mosquito entered the cockpit and distracted him, at one point landing on his glasses, costing him a precious few seconds to the BRR-run pair.

Elsewhere, Juan Carlos Alonso leads ERC2, Ken Torn is in front in ERC3 and the Pirelli-supported ERC3 Junior category, while Andrea Nucita heads the Abarth Rally Cup classification.

Alonso breaks clear of ERC2 rivals in Poland
Juan Carlos Alonso showed his experience in the FIA European Rally Championship by leading the ERC2 production category on PZM 76th Rally Poland, with Zelindo Melegari making a late comeback for second place during the afternoon. Mistubishi Lancer Evolution X driver Alonso, who is now in his third season in the ERC2 category, took the lead on Friday’s opening superspecial and didn’t look back, winning six stages on Saturday.Late drama on the afternoon pass of the Olecko stage turned the ERC2 classification upside down, however, with Melegari (Neiksans Rallysport) jumping straight from fifth to second in just 28.62 kilometres of action.Mshari Althefiri, who had made a brilliant ERC2 debut last month with a second-place finish on Rally Liepāja, was in the same position in Poland and keeping Alonso under pressure. But his gearbox packed in seven kilometres from the finish of Saturday’s penultimate test.That same stage also ended Dmitry Feofanov’s day, a broken wheel on the Sporta Klubs Autostils Rally Team driver’s Lancer costing him fourth place. Abarth Rally Cup leader Andrea Nucita (Loran SRL) is now third overall in ERC2, though would have been second had he not needed to nurse a puncture to the finish on Olecko as well.That delay cost him over two minutes, although the Italian still has the upper hand in his battle for the Abarth Rally Cup title, after his chief rival Dariusz Poloński (Rallytechnology) was forced to retire one stage earlier with a broken driveshaft.Poloński had started brightly and was in the thick of a close duel with Nucita early on, but the driveshaft issues that would end his day had begun as early as SS4, which slowed him down and gave Nucita a chance to close in before his eventual retirement.

Furuseth’s ERC3 lead Torn away by Estonian hotshot
Ken Torn’s strong form after a debut FIA ERC3 Junior Championship victory last month continued on PZM 76th Rally Poland, with the Estonian Autosport Junior Team man taking the lead from Sinde Furuseth. Saintéloc Junior Team’s leading ERC3 driver Furuseth had dominated the morning loop by winning all three full-distance stages, only for his lead to unravel after midday service. His co-driver Jim Hjerpe lost his glasses, which would be a sign of things to come later. Olecko, which would turn out to be a game-changing stage in every ERC category, would also catch out Furuseth, who picked up a puncture and dropped from first to third. Torn was there to pick up the pieces, having caught up with and passed ERC3 Junior championship leader Efrén Llarena (Rally Team Spain) for second earlier on. It was a grand reversal in fortunes from Torn, whose pre-rally test plan was disrupted when he wrote off his original Ford Fiesta R2T chassis, requiring a new one for the event proper. Torn’s move past Llarena on stage four was somewhat incredible: an overshoot sent him through a corn field yet he still produced a faster stage time than the Spanish federation-backed driver. Furuseth however is still in the fight: Torn, Llarena and the Norwegian are all covered by 8.9s with Sunday’s eight stages still to run. A full ERC3 report will be issued separately.