The 70th Rally Poland is one of the rally that was eagerly looked upon, being the former F1 star Robert Kubica's homeland and also because of his outing in the event with the Citroen DS3 RRC rally car.But in the pre-event testing, Kubica crashed heavily and left the car looking beyond repair. But the Polish was determined and with a huge task in hand, the race engineers fixed the devastated DS3 back into a shiny piece of a rally car. Job well done!
And it seemed that it wasn't enough to plague the event, then a heavy downpour on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, left many sections of stages with slushy stages, and beyond immediate repair. Soon the organisers of LOTOS 70 Rally Poland to made a few modifications to the event itinerary.
On Saturday 14 September, special stage one and four, Tałty, is cut from 14.54 kilometres to 6.15 kilometres. Baranowo, which forms stages two and five of the gravel rally, is trimmed from 17.51 kilometres to 12.11 kilometres. However, the length of Mrągowo, which counts as stage three and seven and will be shown live on Eurosport, is unchanged.The stages scheduled for Sunday 15 September are also unchanged, including the Mateuszek run, which will also be televised live on Eurosport.The changes made to Saturday’s itinerary means that the total competitive distance of LOTOS 70 Rally Poland falls from 230.40 kilometres to 202.82 kilometres. The revised itinerary can be found in Bulletins and Notices in the Calendar section of www.fiaerc.com.
With the above announcement, it was rest assured that the event was still achievable. Even though the recce was a disaster, the shakedown looked much better. Hope the conditions will be better for tomorrow's full fledged action.In the shake down held on Friday, Kubica was the fastest through and another fellow countryman and Fiesta R5 driver Michał Kosciuszko came second quick. Triple Polish champion Bryan Bouffier was third quickest in a Peugeot 207 S2000 and ERC championship leader Jan Kopecky fourth fastest driving a Skoda Fabia S2000 for Skoda Motorsport. “It was nice to see so many people in the stage,” said Kopecky. “But it was quite rough in some places and my car was quite low so it was touching.”
Craig Breen was not really happy with his eighth position with his Peugeot 207 S2000 driving for Peugeot Rally Academy. “I wasn’t happy with my driving in there – I couldn’t find a good rhythm, but the real rally begins tomorrow.”
Day 1 - Saturday, 14th September - 2013
Bryan Bouffier keeps a tab on the rest of the field, while the homeland star Robert Kubica struggled. With a brilliant start, right from SS1 Talty 1 (6.15 kms), till the end of SS7 helped Bouffier in securing the top position.
Since morning, the conditions were not ideal enough to push, but still all the competitors braved to put a good show. Incredibly slushy and wet conditions prevailed at almost of the entire stages for the day.
Although the former F1 star Kubica was quickest through the first pass of SS Mragowo 1 (25.16 kms), nature caught out the pole. Explains, "A big stone in the cut, in a 5th gear corner..." Front right wheel is knocked off the car and he thought it was just a flat tyre. When he was asked "Superally tomorrow?","I don't know...", he said.
Sunday's action is over three [better?!] stages, that are run twice in a loop and will stick to the original itinerary - unlike today's shortened after intervention by the organisers, yielding to the nature's fury.
Top 5 scoreboard by the end of SS7, Day 1
| Pos | No | Driver | Time | Diff Prev | Diff 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 6 | B. BOUFFIER | 55:12.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2. | 7 | K. KAJETANOWICZ | 55:29.5 | +16.8 | +16.8 | |
| 3. | 4 | M. SOLOWOW | 56:18.6 | +49.1 | +1:05.9 | |
| 4. | 1 | J. KOPECKY | 56:23.7 | +5.1 | +1:11.0 | |
| 5. | 10 | K. HOLOWCZYC | 56:59.6 | +35.9 | +1:46.9 |
Day 2 - Sunday, 15th September - 2013 [Final Day]
Kajetan Kajetanowicz won Rally Poland in style after Bryan Bouffier succumbed to the final day stages. In the top five finishes, it took 3 local drivers, while Czech & Skoda Fabia S2000 driver Jan Kopecky finishing on the final podium step.
| Pos | No | Driver | Time | Diff Prev | Diff 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 7 | K. KAJETANOWICZ | 1:58:40.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2. | 76 | B. BOUFFIER | 1:59:03.9 | +23.3 | +23.3 | |
| 3. | 1 | J. KOPECKY | 2:00:09.0 | +1:05.1 | +1:28.1 | |
| 4. | 9 | M. KOSCIUSZKO | 2:00:54.7 | +45.7 | +2:14.1 | |
| 5. | 10 | K. HOLOWCZYC | 2:01:56.1 | +1:01.4 | +3:15.5 |
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