Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Kopecký increases his lead on Lukyanuk

26. 8. 2017 - Petr Říha

The defending Czech champion and a five-time winner of Barum rally Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia R5) proves he's the biggest favourite of the 47th Barum Czech Rally Zlín. The driver of Škoda Motorsport factory team is ahead of Russian Alexey Lukyanuk (Ford Fiesta R5) by 17 seconds. Václav Pech (Ford Fiesta R5) holds the third place. Six Czech drivers are in the top ten.

Kopecký won five out of seven stages of Leg 1. After SS5 he was leading only by 2 seconds, but further in rally Lukyanuk made some mistakes, had technical difficulties and lost precious time. Firstly, Lukyanuk was spinning and in SS7 he lost power steering. He had to stop and restart his car losing more and more seconds.

French Bryan Bouffier, Ford Fiesta R5, representing the local Gemini Clinic Team, was just unlucky. He slowly worked himself up to fourth place, but a puncture cost him a place in top ten. The tenth place holds domestic driver Pavel Valoušek (Škoda Fabia R5).

Václav Pech seems to be doing just fine and the German Marian Griebel (Škoda Fabia R5) is 19 seconds behind him. Apart from Kopecký, Pech and Valoušek there are three more drivers in the top ten. Roman Kresta is just behind Griebel, Tomáš Kostka is sixth and the eight place belongs to Jan Černý, all on Škoda Fabia R5.

Category ERC2 is led by Hungarian Tibor Érdi (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X), first place in ERC3 holds Aleks Zawada from Poland (Opel Adam R2), Czech talent Filip Mareš lost second place due to a puncture (Peugeot 208 R2).

There is only one remaining stage and that is SS Březová. And Sunday's Leg 2 has six special stages. The winner will arrive on a finishing ramp on Sunday 27th August at 4:16 p.m. on the same place.

The 47th Barum Czech Rally Zlín is a sixth event of FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) series and likewise a sixth event of TrueCam Czech Rally Championship 2017 (MČR).

Results after SS8:
1. Jan Kopecký, Pavel Dresler (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) 59:06.3 min
2. Alexey Lukyanuk, Alexey Arnautov (RUS, Ford Fiesta R5) + 17.3 s
3. Václav Pech, Petr Uhel (CZE, Ford Fiesta R5) + 46.6 s
4. Marijan Griebel, Stefan Kopczyk (DE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:05.8 min
5. Roman Kresta, Petr Starý (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:06.4 min
6. Tomáš Kostka, Ladislav Kučera (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:09.1 min
7. Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Jaroslaw Baran (POL, Ford Fiesta R5) + 1:12.5 min
8. Jan Černý, Petr Černohorský (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:12.7 min
9. Martin Koči, Filip Schovánek (SVK/CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:36.2 min
10. Pavel Valoušek, Veronika Havelková (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 1:42.3 min

26. Aleks Zawada, Grzegorz Dachowski (POL, Opel Adam R2) + 6:23.9 min
31. Tibor Érdi, György Papp (HUN, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X) + 8:53.1 min