Volkan Işık (above) finished third in the European Rally Championship points classification on the 65th Rally Poland after maintaining his overnight position through the six gravel stages that made up yesterday's final leg to arrive safely back in Mikołajki.

Volkan Işık finished third in the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) points classification on the 65th Rally Poland after maintaining his overnight position through the six gravel stages that made up yesterday's final leg to arrive safely back in Mikołajki. The result moves him into fourth place in the ERC standings and helps him close up in the title battle.

Meanwhile Michal and Grzegorz Bebenek (Mitsubishi Evo IX) won the ORLEN Platinum 65 Rally Poland overall. Second place was taken by Bryan Bouffier and Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000) in the fastest of the Super2000 cars. Michal Solowow and Maciej Baran in a similar car were third.

The Bebenek brothers weren't the favourites for the event, which counted towards the Platinum Polish Rally Championship as well as the four round of the FIA European Rally Championship. After the brilliant start they took the lead and drove sensibly taking the victory. Additionally they won an series extra point for winning the biggest number of special stages, five

Second place went to Bouffier and Panseri; the current Polish champions, they only won only one special stage. The French duo underlined that the Bebenek brothers were unbeatable. They won eight points which cemented their lead in the championship. Kajetan Kajetanowicz who was fifth in Mikolajki is the runner-up of the classification. Third place was taken by Solowow and Baran.

One of the pre-race favourites, Michal Kosciuszko and Maciej Baran (Peugeot 207 S2000), did not reach the finish line as on SS 9 they had a serious accident and were forced to retire. Daniel Chwist and Robert Hundla had an accident as well. Due to this the stage was interrupted and the crew was taken to hospital in Gizycko. After an observation period Chwist was released, while Hundla had a broken leg. He was taken by helicopter to Cracow.

The special prize funded by a mayor of Mikolajki was given to Tomasz Kuchar and Daniel Dymurski – winners of Friday’s special stage. Thirty five crews reached the finish. In the A6 class Piotr Maciejewski and Piotr Kowalski (Suzuki Swift) were the winners while Zbigniew Cieslar and Adam Ogierman (Renault Clio) were victorious in the A7 class. Among Citroens C2-R2 (R2B) class Marcin Pasecki and Ryszard Ciupka were the winners. The N2 class meanwhile was taken by Artur Kurnicki and Katarzyna Pytel.

In the ERC points standings, Solowow, who finished third overall, collected a maximum score of 16 points and he moves into second place in the standings with 28 points, now just four adrift of championship leader Luca Rossetti who didn't take part in the Rally Poland. Corrado Fontana, the winner of the last round of the series, the Croatia Delta Rally, swapped his usual Grande Punto Abarth S2000 this weekend for a Mitsubishi Evo IX, but retired on the final day. The Italian remains on 21 points, but slips down to third in the championship. Işık, who collected 8 points for third place, his second consecutive ERC podium finish, moves onto 20 points and climbs above Renato Travaglia (19 points) into fourth place in the standings.

The next round of the ERC is the Belgium Ypres Rally on 27-29 June; it is one of the longest-standing events is the series, attracting widespread popular support from all over Northern Europe. As well as huge numbers of spectators lining the fast and specialised asphalt stages, there is a massive amount of television and media interest around the event.