Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Kopecký won Leg 1 but Lukyanuk is right behind him

28. 8. 2016 - Petr Říha, Roman Ordelt

Leg 1 on Saturday was quite thrilling at the 46th Barum Czech Rally Zlín, which is the eight event of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) and the fifth event of Auto-club Czech Rally Championship 2016. After nine Special Stages the four-time winner Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia R5) from factory team Škoda Motorsport is in the lead and a half a second behind him is Russian express Alexey Lukyanuk (Ford Fiesta R5). Third place holds France's Bryan Bouffier (Citroën DS3 R5). The winner will be decided in Leg 2 on Sunday, which has six stages on three sections.

The defending Czech champion won five out of eight Special Stages but that was not enough to secure him a save lead for Sunday. 'Today was about my fight with Alexey. I'm looking forward for tomorrow and I want to win,' said Jan Kopecký. The Škoda Motorsport factory driver already achieved one of his set goals for Zlín. Thanks to the points for stage victories, he has already secured himself his fourth Czech title.

Lukyanuk was the fastest one on three stages and he's thinking about going even further. His good pace can ruin Kopecký's second goal and that is winning the Barum Czech Rally Zlín for the fifth time and getting the Challenge cup forever. 'It's unbelievable that we were able to close the gap between us and Kopecký. We're taking risks but we'll push tomorrow. Kopecký knows these roads very well, it won't be easy,' said Alexey Lukyanuk.

There is also a tight fight for the third place, which now holds Bryan Bouffier with almost eight seconds lead on domestic Tomáš Kostka (Škoda Fabia R5). Both profited from the retirement of the ERC leader Poland's Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Škoda Fabia R5). His car lost power during stage four and after finishing that stage the defending European Champion was forced to retire due to technical problems. Also Latvia's Ralfs Sirmacis (Škoda Fabia R5) was unlucky as he had a puncture and his leeway rose up to two and a half minute and he fell out of the top ten. For the same reason dropped Pavel Valoušek (Škoda Fabia R5), the native from Otrokovice is now on the ninth position. In overall classification there is a surprising yet well-known name as Václav Pech with a very attractive Porsche 997 GT3 showed us that he can keep up with others and he is seventh.

Italy's Marco Cavigioli only tried Super SS, because damaged Subaru Impreza STi prohibited him from running in Leg 1. Very early the rally ended for Netherland's Hermen Kobus (Škoda Fabia R5) and Zlín driver Jan Jelínek (Škoda Fabia S2000), both crashed. On his Barum Rally debut Martin Špaňhel (Honda Civic VTi), a world hockey champion of 2000 and a former hockey player, retired during SS 3. Leg 1 was also unlucky for the singer and actress Olga Lounová (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX).

The category ERC2 is led by Italy's Giacomo Scattolon (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), in the category ERC3 and Junior British Christopher Ingram (Opel Adam R2) is in the lead and he is also the fastest in the two-wheel drive category. Behind him is Poland's Lukasz Pieniazek (Opel Adam R2). In his category Italy's Luca Rossetti (Toyota GT86 CS-R3) is on the third position. In the production car category, the leader is Poland's Jaroslaw Szeja (Subaru Impreza STi) followed by the Czech driver Martin Březík (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX).

The last Leg 2 of the 46th Barum Czech Rally Zlín is on Sunday 28th August and comprises of six stages on three sections – Kašava, Pindula and Maják and the length is 102 kilometres. The most successful crew will receive the cup at 4:25 p.m. on square náměstí Míru in front of the Town hall.

Standings after Leg 1:
1. Jan Kopecký – Pavel Dresler (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) 1:10:44.0 hour
2. Alexey Lukyanuk – Alexey Arnautov (RUS, FORD Fiesta R5) + 0.5 s
3. Bryan Bouffier – Gilbert Dini (FRA, Citroën DS3 R5) + 1:00.2 min
4. Tomáš Kostka – Ladislav Kučera (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:08.1 min
5. Jaromír Tarabus – Daniel Trunkát (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:32.5 min
6. Jan Černý – Petr Černohorský (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:34.2 min
7. Václav Pech – Petr Uhel (CZE, Porsche 997 GT3) + 1:45.9 min
8. Fabian Kreim – Frank Christian (DEU, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:54.6 min
9. Pavel Valoušek – Veronika Havelková (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 2:34.3 min
10. Vojtěch Štajf – František Rajnoha (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 3:04.9 min

26. Ingram – Edmondson (GBR, Opel Adam R2), 1. ERC3, JERC, 2WD + 6:52.3 min
29. Scattolon – Zanini (ITA, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), 1. ERC2 + 7:33.1 min