gullThe perfect rally so far
“I stop 100 meters from the time control of SS6, sighed Cherain. We were waiting to clock in on time and as I restarted, I gave the wheel a little spin. We were having the perfect rally until then. I made a small mistake, but we got back into the rhythm well in SS8 where we made up some time.”
Already warned at the Rallye de Wallonie for similar acts, will the sanction, the severity of which can be judged to be somewhat excessive, push Cédric Cherain to attack even more during the final loop of this first day? Probably, especially since Jos Verstappen admits to not being very comfortable on the night stages.
Third, Niels Reynvoet (Citroën) from Ghent is 15 seconds behind and seems to be perfectly managing his lead in the championship, ready to take advantage of the slightest error from his opponents for the title.
Having made a mistake on a patch of ice this morning, Maxime Potty (Citroën) has started a slow climb up the rankings, where he is in 4th position before this Saturday’s epilogue. “With the delay accumulated this morning, we will need one or even several racing events to be able to hope to renew our titlehe admits. But things will still happen. There are still eight stages to go and the terrain is very tricky with changing grip conditions.”
Big crash for Stampaert: crew ok
The 7th special stage of the rally was neutralized after the passage of nine cars following the big exit from the road of the Flandrien Nicolas Stampaert who lost control of his Skoda Fabia when receiving the ‘jump’ in Fays Show. After hitting the embankment, the car hit the trees on their side of the road. The crew emerged unscathed from this spectacular accident, but were taken to hospital for the usual checks.
Another retirement: that of Bastien Rouard (Hyundai), victim of a double puncture in SS 6 and therefore unable to continue the race.
Live results and rankings
