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ERC - 2013 | Round 2 - Rally Liepāja-Ventspils, Latvia


At the end of the opening leg of the rally, Craig Breen leads the rally by a little over 6s to Finnish Jari Ketomaa, and Francois Delecour another 6s further in third overall.

Jari Ketomaa was the fastest through the qualification stage this morning and Craig Breen all the way down at 6th and the turn around was a bit of a surprise for the top field, but the Irish got the talent. Delecour's third is something extraordinary, as he had to drive through SS3 by holding the door closed which had latching/locking issues.

Day 1, top 5 result.


1 | C.Breen / D.Moynihan       | 22:15.4
Peugeot 207 (2)

2 | J.Ketomaa / K.Lindström   | 22:21.8 | +6.4
Ford Fiesta RRC (2)

3 | F.Delecour / D.Savignoni   | 22:27.5 | +12.1
Peugeot 207 (2)

4 | A.Lukyanuk / A.Arnautov  | 22:48.1 | +32.7
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (3)

5 | V.Švedas / Ž.Sakalauskas  | 23:06.2 | +50.8
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (3)



_ ______ ____________ _ ____________ ______ _

Day 2



Jari Ketomaa managed to reverse the overnight deficit of 6.4s to take on the lead in Rally Liepāja-Ventspils by 12.1s over Craig Breen. Today's stage was of high-speed stages over ice and snow stages over Latvian gravel roads.

The turbocharged 1.6 Fiesta RRC motor is probably more suited and undoubtedly has more power than the S2000 spec 207, yet the Finn is nothing short of talent either. Breen lost like 12s in one particular stage today and since then couldn't manage to regain his loss of time to his rally rival, Ketomaa. Frenchman Francios Delecour slipped to 4th overall by the day's end, while Russian Alexey Lukyanuk is now 3rd overall, while Lithuanian, Vytautas Svedas is in 5th overall.

Day 2, top 5 result.

1 | J.Ketomaa / K.Lindström   | 1:09:19.9
Ford Fiesta RRC (2)

2 | C.Breen / D.Moynihan       | 1:09:32.0 | +12.1
Peugeot 207 (2)

3 | A.Lukyanuk / A.Arnautov  | 1:10:23.3 | +1:03.4
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (3)

4 | F.Delecour / D.Savignoni   | 1:10:37.3 | +1:17.4
Peugeot 207 (2)

5 | V.Švedas / Ž.Sakalauskas  | 1:11:42.2 | +2:22.3
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (3)



A view from yesterday's stage action!



_ ______ ____________ _ ____________ ______ _

Day 2




Jari Ketomaa / Kaj Lindström win the Rally Liepāja-Ventspils, second round of the ERC series - 2013.

Thrilling three day battle on gravel/snow roads was immensely competitive for the young pairs, especially between the winning Finns and the Irish squad,

Craig Breen with his codriver David Moynihan in their Peugeot 207 S2000 rally car. The Irishmen were leading at the end of day 1, however since noon of day 2 the Finns took charge of the lead and to win it in style.

The third place was finally taken by the legendary Frenchman Francois Delecour after the Russian team Lukyanuk / Arnautovi failed to finish the rally due to a broken engine in the penultimate stage of day 3, i.e., today.

Final [Day 3],  top 5 result.

| J.Ketomaa / K.Lindström   | 2:05:51.3
Ford Fiesta RRC (2)

| C.Breen / D.Moynihan       | 2:06:22.0 | +30.7
Peugeot 207 (2)

| F.Delecour / D.Savignoni   | 2:08:35.2 | +2:43.9
Peugeot 207 (2)

| J.Černý / P.Kohout             | 2:08:57.5 | +3:06.2
Skoda Fabia (2)

| V.Švedas / Ž.Sakalauskas  | 2:11:33.1 | +5:41.8
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (3)



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