After SS9: Lappi spins and wins on Rally Liepāja
Esapekka Lappi has extended his lead on round two of the FIA European Rally Championship despite spinning his ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000.
The Finn won the 24.99-kilometre Liepāja test by 9.6s despite the moment and leads Vasily Gryazin in the overall classification by 15.1s with three stages remaining.
“We had a spin and we had to do a 360 turn,” said Lappi. “There is some scary places with a lot of snow. Some times you have big slides, it’s okay.”
Gryazin reported his Ford Fiesta S2000 hit the rev limiter on a number of occasions but remains in contention for his maiden ERC victory.
Craig Breen, who was second fastest, extended his gap over Kajetan Kajetanowicz in the battle for third place but said a warning light on his Peugeot 207 S2000 was a concern. The Irishman also suffered a big moment nearing the stage finish.
Oleksii Tamrazov damaged his Fiesta’s exhaust going off the road, while Jaromír Tarabus crashed out. Elsewhere, Jan Černý has extended his lead in ERC Junior after Risto Immonen said he was “sliding too much”.
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After SS10: Birthday boy Breen goes slow to keep third
Craig Breen continues to hold third place on Rally Liepāja – by going slowly. The Irishman thought he’d punctured a tyre after clipping an object nearing the finish of the rerun of Rallyofchampions.com and dropped his pace as a result.
“I clipped something about two and a half kilometres from the finish so I drove quite slowly, I thought I had a puncture,” said Breen, who reached the stage finish with mud lodged in the right-rear wheel of his Peugeot 207 S2000.
Despite his cautious finish to the stage, Breen still recorded the second fastest time to increase his advantage over Kajetan Kajetanowicz in the battle for the final podium spot.
Out front, Espaekka Lappi bagged his sixth stage win of the rally for ŠKODA Motorsport. It means the Finn’s lead ahead of Sports Racing Technologies’ Vasily Gryazin is now 19.8s.
“It’s a good time,” said Lappi. “We had good grip and a good feeling so why not push? I am not at 100 per cent. I am at 90 per cent so I don’t make any mistakes.”
Mattias Olsson was fastest in ERC Junior, 0.7s quicker than Petter Kristiansen. Jan Černý, who was third quickest, has built his category lead to 24.6s ahead of Risto Immonen. Kristiansen moves into third after Stéphane Lefebvre retired on stage nine when his Peugeot 208 R2 reportedly caught fire.
Latvian driver Jānis Vorobjovs, who inherited the ERC Production Car Cup lead on stage nine, was quickest in class and leads Vitaliy Pushkar by 29.1s. Oleksii Tamrazov lost time with a puncture and bent wheel on his Fiesta S2000.
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After SS11: Wiegand quickest, problems for Gryazin
Vasily Gryazin has completed stage 11 of Rally Liepāja with his Ford Fiesta S2000 stuck in fourth gear.
The 20-year-old Russian started the run still in contention for victory on the FIA European Rally Championship event but his time loss through the 16.16-kilometre LDz Cargo test means he now trails leader Esapekka Lappi by 25.7s with one stage remaining.
“We just have only fourth gear, something is wrong with the gearbox,” said Gryazin. “It happened in the middle section.”
Lappi’s ŠKODA Motorsport team-mate Sepp Wiegand won the stage, his first of the event. Lappi was second fastest, 2.8s down on Wiegand with Craig Breen third quickest in his Peugeot 207 S2000.
"The handbrake was not working, the front wheels were locking and not the rear, there were a couple of hairpins where the handbrake was not working,” said Breen, who was 4.8s slower than Wiegand. “We did not plan for so much snow, so we just decided to stick with the podium today.”
The final stage, Liepāja 2, goes live at 15:00hrs.
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