Luca Rossetti ended the
first leg off the 67th Rajd Polski this evening holding
onto an important fourth place in the FIA European Rally
Championship (ERC) standings after spending today
sweeping the road for the following competitors. The
Abarth driver is fifth overall on the road, but dropped
down one place on the final stage of the day, SS9, the
second running off the 25.59 km long Zaleise test, after
Maciej Oleksowicz (Ford Fiesta S2000), who is also
registered for ERC points, pipped him by 7.6 seconds to
wrest fourth place away.
On unfamiliar gravel
roads and against highly experienced top-level local
competition, as well as having to "sweep" the loose
chunks of gravel away thanks to being seeded at number
one this morning due to being the overall rally leader
following the two superspecial stages the previous
night, Rossetti still had an impressive day in the
private Procar-run Abarth Grande Punto S2000.
Rossetti went into
today's programme of severn stages as the overall leader
of 67th Radj Polski after two runs of the "Mikolajki"
superspecial held on Friday night. He also won the
"shakedown" earlier that day which comprised of four
free runs over the superspecial. The Italian driver
managed to gain a slender 0.9 second advantage over
Oleksowicz last night to take into today's programme.
Third place was occupied as the cars rolled out of Parc
ferme early this morning by former Polish privateer
Abarth driver Michal Solowow who made it two of the new
Fiesta Super 2000 machines in the top-three. In fact
Super 2000 cars locked out all the top-six positions
after Friday's competition with the fastest group N car
being Kajetan Kajetanowicz’s Subaru Impreza.
Today there were seven tough stages on the schedule
(three stages to be run twice plus a third running of
the superspecial stage) located to north-east of
Mikolajki. The total length of the Saturday stages was
126,62 kms.
Rossetti had a very
cautious start to the day on SS3 as he learnt the tracks
and cleared the gravel from his position as first driver
through the stages. He dropped just under twenty seconds
on that stage to slip down to ninth overall, however his
main ERC title rivals, Italians Luca Betti (Peugeot 207
S2000) and Corrado Fontana (Mitsubishi Evo IX), lost
31.8 and 51.2 seconds respectively to allow Rossetti to
take a grip amongst the key title favourites.
On the next stage of
the day, SS4, Rossetti moved one more place up the order
to eighth overall, but his advantage over Betti and
Fontana improved much further as Betti lost 1:13.3 on
the stage while Fontana dropped exactly three minutes.
At the mid point service of the day, Rossetti was
looking in a steady and strong position: "The car is
perfect," said the experienced Italian. "I have to clean
the surface, I hope to be better during the second
loop."
At the front
however it was Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot 207 S2000) who was
leading the rally after Saturday’s first loop of stages. The
Frenchman won SS Jagodne and SS Zalesie gaining a 16-second
advantage over second overall Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Subaru
Impreza) who won SS Syba but was hit by a rear puncture
during the next test. Tomasz Kuchar (Peugeot 207 S2000) was
third overall but he had lost nearly a minute to Bouffier.
During SS Zalesie Kuchar caught Krzysztof Holowczyc (Peugeot
207 S2000) and was forced to drive in his dust. The Peugeot
Sport Polska driver then won the spectacular Mikolajki
superspecial. Hołowczyc made a miskate at SS Zalesie – he
went too fast through a puddle, lost steering of his car and
finished in a lake. Thanks to the help of the spectators
“Holek” managed to carry on, but lost over a minute. One of
the favorites to take final victory, Michal Kosciuszko
(Skoda Fabia S2000), faced engine maladies and was forced to
retire before SS4. It is not yet decided whether he carries
on with SupeRally system tomorrow.
Rossetti
played it carefully during the final loop of today's
stages and went into parc ferme this evening in fourth
place in the ERC standings, 1:33.5 behind Kajetanowicz
who leads the European classification at the end of the
first leg. "After the first loop I thought I could
improve my position," said Rossetti. "However, I ended
at the same place. The surface is totally new for me and
I experimented with the tyres a bit," added the Scorpion
driver. Sołowow is second in the ERC positions tonight,
less than 30 seconds ahead of "Rox" while third place
was wrestled out of the Abarth driver's grip on the
final stage of the day by Oleksowicz, but the gap is
between the two is just 5.7 seconds. Importantly for
Rossetti, who picks up an additional two points today as
the ERC offers points rewards at the end of each day,
his main title rivals have suffered badly: Betti is
sixth on the rally's ERC leaderboard, but the gap
between the Peugeot and the Abarth driver is now
five-and-a-half minutes while Fontana has dropped out of
the rally completely and thus picks up no points.
Saturday’s
special stages took their toll as many of top drivers
did not reach the finish line. The event was unlucky for
pilots including Michal Kosciuszko, Holowczyc, Szymon
Ruta and Bouffier. The Frenchman, who was the only
driver able to match Kajetanowicz’s pace, faced an
engine failure in his Enjolras Sport prepared Peugeot
during the penultimate test. Before the start of the
same stage Holowczyc was forced to retire due to rear
differential damage.
Forty-one surviving crews will start tomorrow's second
and final leg which comprises of seven stages. Rossetti
will be seeded in fifth place meaning that he won't be
slowed any longer by the raw gravel and will have to
opportunity to set more representative times. However
with one of his main title rivals gone and another well
adrift, the experienced Italian will need to continue to
practice caution on unfamiliar roads. The seven stages
in the Sunday’s schedule total 125.30 kms while the
fourth running of the Mikolajki superspecial will finish
the event. The winner will be “crowned” at about 16:30.
