The weekend was all set to stage the Sata Rallye Acores , the fourth rally of the ERC calendar. The rally started with dense clouds lingeri...
The weekend was all set to stage the Sata Rallye Acores, the fourth rally of the ERC calendar. The rally started with dense clouds lingering around the island, and it was raining with some fog. With celebrities and young stars like Robert Kubica, Jan Kopecky, Craig Breen, [and more] in the entry list, the weekend was set to be packed with full of exciting stage action.
Rally was hosted at the picturesque city of Lagoa municipality on the southwest-central part of São Miguel Island, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Rally HQ was established on Monday the 21st Apr-2013, with the recce spread for 2 days, ie., yesterday and today. The documentation was established and concluded by Wednesday noon, along with the pre-event scrutineering.
Ceremonial start and city show was held on Wednesday, and the real gravel action began on 25th Thursday with a free practice and shakedown in the morning. The competitive stage action started post lunch and with a service total scheduled for four stages on the opening day. On Friday, 8 stages with a mid day service is scheduled with a night halt. Final 7 stages will be on Saturday, again with a mid day service to conclude the rally.
Below are the videos of the event promo and tests done by the Skoda Motorsport and Robert Kubica. Australian Molly Taylor too will be debuted her 2013 rally here as well.
Day 1
Overnight heavy downpour has claimed a few stages resulting in drastic changes to the rally itinerary. SS1 - Coroa da Mata 1 was eventually cancelled and SS2 - São Brás/Vila Franca 1 - was shortened from 16.38 km to 6.14 km. |
| Andre Lavadinho World Photography |
Revised stage length of the first leg is now less than 10 % of the total distance for the day, Thursday's stages will hold good for Friday's route as well. The event's stage stewards confirmed that the legs one and two will be merged. This resulted the start order selected by the priority drivers on the opening day to be held good for day 2.
Jean-Michel Raoux started first today, and will run first on the road tomorrow in his Peugeot 207 following qualifying for the event, where the former F1 driver Robert Kubica went fastest. He had selected last position, behind Craig Breen and Jan Kopecky although he was undecided over the order, initially.
“I would prefer to be further back because now I don't know which position is the best to choose,” admitted the F1 star being almost four seconds quicker than the lot through the qualifying stage.
“I have no experience and with so much surface changes on the stages it's very difficult to know what is the best. Without being here before you don't know how the roads are developing and whether the grip level is damp or wet or getting worse. Some places will get better, some places will get worse.”
It was disppointing for Bryan Bouffier who was forced to withdraw followed by a blown engine during pre-event testing. “I regret to announce that I will not be at the start of the rally,” he said. “The engine broke during testing and a spare was not available.” Bouffier had been amongst the pre-event favourites for success in his Peugeot 207 S2000.
Here is the top 5 results of the event, more at the official page here.
| POS | NO | DRIVER CO-DRIVER | ENTRANT CAR | CLASS | TOTAL TIME [+PEN] | DIFF 1ST PREV | |
| 1 | 4 | Robert KUBICA (POL) Maciek BARAN (POL) | CITROEN DS3 RRC | 2 | 11:13.5 | -:- -:- | |
| 2 | 1 | Jan KOPECKY (CZE) Pavel DRESLER (CZE) | SKODA MOTORSPORT SKODA FABIA S2000 | 2 | 11:23.2 | +9.7 +9.7 | |
| 3 | 6 | Ricardo MOURA (PRT) Sancho EIRÓ (PRT) | SKODA FABIA S2000 | 2 | 11:24.0 | +10.5 +0.8 | |
| 4 | 2 | Craig BREEN (IRL) Paul NAGLE (IRL) | PEUGEOT RALLY Academy PEUGEOT 207 S2000 | 2 | 11:25.2 | +11.7 +1.2 | |
| 5 | 10 | Bernardo SOUSA (PRT) Hugo MAGALHÃES (PRT) | FORD FIESTA RRC | 2 | 11:27.1 | +13.6 +1.9 |
Day 2
With the thunderstorm filled action yesterday, the stages were much better for driving today, although high drama still lurking around the competition.Overnight leader Robert Kubica lost his top place to Jan Kopecky after SS7, only to roll out on SS11 and even lucky enough to reach service with SS12 cancelled to similar reasons as y'day.
Kubica, who was leading SATA Rallye Açores only to be forced to slow in heavy fog on stage eight, was battling back into contention when he rolled his Citroën DS3 RRC on the Feteiras stage, which was being streamed live on the official ERC website, www.fiaerc.com.He explains: “We went to a right-hander and I lost the car. The road was very narrow so we clipped a bank. We nearly managed to get it back but the bank was bigger and thicker and unfortunately it pulled us on the side and we rolled. At the end of the stage we managed to fix a bit the wheel and we managed to come back. The roll cage is okay from our point of view. It has been difficult, difficult day starting last stage of first loop when we had a lot of fog. If we manage to get the car sorted out then after that we will see if we carry on.
It was not an issue of visibility, the conditions are very difficult and very difficult for everybody. I was surprised how the car reacted. I was not expecting it. I was not pushing because we had bad luck with the fog at the end of the last stage of the first loop. Even driving at normal speed there was very poor grip in the corner and we lost the car. It was a result of a mistake. When you see the car like this you don’t enjoy it.”
Kubica’s damaged car is currently being repaired in service in Ponta Delgada. The event restarts on Sunday morning with the 20.82 km of Graminhais stage.
Day's top 5 result displayed below, complete results here.
| POS | NO | DRIVER CO-DRIVER | ENTRANT CAR | CLASS | TOTAL TIME [PEN] | DIFF 1ST PREV | |
| 1 | 1 | Jan KOPECKY (CZE) Pavel DRESLER (CZE) | SKODA MOTORSPORT SKODA FABIA S2000 | 2 | 1:05:11.9 | -:- -:- | |
| 2 | 2 | Craig BREEN (IRL) Paul NAGLE (IRL) | PEUGEOT RALLY ACADEMY PEUGEOT 207 S2000 | 2 | 1:05:25.0 | +13.1 +13.1 | |
| 3 | 8 | Bruno MAGALHÃES (PRT) Nuno DA SILVA (PRT) | PEUGEOT 207 S2000 | 2 | 1:05:45.8 | +33.9 +20.8 | |
| 4 | 6 | Ricardo MOURA (PRT) Sancho EIRÓ (PRT) | SKODA FABIA S2000 | 2 | 1:05:47.4 | +35.5 +1.6 | |
| 5 | 10 | Bernardo SOUSA (PRT) Hugo MAGALHÃES (PRT) | FORD FIESTA RRC | 2 | 1:05:48.0 | +36.1 +0.6 |
Day 3 - Final Leg
After an eventful opening two days at Sata Rallye, Acores, things changed for good with better weather. The fight for the top position were mostly even, with Jan Kopecky in the lead and eventually taking the rally win at the end of SS19."It's good and I am very happy, I have not done many gravel rally, this is my first win on the gravel. It was great, we are really happy. I was very close in 2010 and we crash, so I am very happy to win. We need one more (win) and that is the first half...", said excited Jan Kopecky, happy with his win.
Not so lucky, the former F1 driver Robert Kubica finished the rally in overall 6th place. He quoted at the end of SS19, "It has been difficult weekend for us, especially for today, some stages we did not have any pace notes becasue of the fog. We have been lucky and unlucky this weekend, but it has been a good experience."
Plenty more bits of info, all here along with the complete results.
| POS | NO | DRIVER CO-DRIVER | ENTRANT CAR | CLASS | TOTAL TIME [PEN] | DIFF 1ST PREV | |
| 1 | 1 | Jan KOPECKY (CZE) Pavel DRESLER (CZE) | SKODA MOTORSPORT SKODA FABIA S2000 | 2 | 2:26:32.2 | -:- -:- | |
| 2 | 2 | Craig BREEN (IRL) Paul NAGLE (IRL) | PEUGEOT RALLY ACADEMY PEUGEOT 207 S2000 | 2 | 2:27:04.4 | +32.2 +32.2 | |
| 3 | 6 | Ricardo MOURA (PRT) Sancho EIRÓ (PRT) | SKODA FABIA S2000 | 2 | 2:27:31.0 | +58.8 +26.6 | |
| 4 | 8 | Bruno MAGALHÃES (PRT) Nuno DA SILVA (PRT) | PEUGEOT 207 S2000 | 2 | 2:29:09.8 | +2:37.6 +1:38.8 | |
| 5 | 9 | Jérémi ANCIAN (FRA) Gilles DE TURCKHEIM (FRA) | PEUGEOT RALLY ACADEMY PEUGEOT 207 S2000 | 2 | 2:29:59.6 | +3:27.4 +49.8 |
Overall Championship standings after Round 4, Sata Rallye Acores.
| ERC - DRIVERS | ||
| POS | DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | Jan KOPECKY (CZE) | 76 |
| 2 | Craig BREEN (IRL) | 58 |
| 3 | Jari KETOMAA (FIN) | 39 |
| 4 | Francois DELECOUR (FRA) | 32 |
| 5 | Bryan BOUFFIER (FRA) | 31 |
| ERC - CO-DRIVERS | ||
| POS | CO-DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | Pavel DRESLER (CZE) | 76 |
| 2 | Olivier FOURNIER (FRA) | 44 |
| 3 | Kaj LINDSTROM (FIN) | 39 |
| 4 | Dominique SAVIGNONI (FRA) | 32 |
| 5 | David MOYNIHAN (IRL) | 30 |
| 2WD - DRIVERS | ||
| POS | DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | Zoltan BESSENYEY (HUN) | 53 |
| 2 | Hannes DANZINGER (AUT) | 43 |
| 3 | Gorka ANTXUSTEGI (ESP) | 39 |
| 4 | Risto IMMONEN (FIN) | 39 |
| 5 | Elwis CHENTRE (ITA) | 38 |
| 2WD - CO-DRIVERS | ||
| POS | CO-DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | Yulianna NYIRFAS (HUN) | 53 |
| 2 | Katharina WÜSTENHAGEN (DEU) | 43 |
| 3 | Alberto IGLESIAS (ESP) | 39 |
| 4 | Mikko LUKKA (FIN) | 39 |
| 5 | Bernhard ETTEL (AUT) | 31 |
| PRODUCTION CUP - DRIVERS | ||
| POS | DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | Jaroslav ORSÁK (CZE) | 42 |
| 2 | Andreas AIGNER (AUT) | 39 |
| 3 | Beppo HARRACH (AUT) | 38 |
| 4 | Vytautas ŠVEDAS (LTU) | 37 |
| 5 | Kajetan KAJETANOWICZ (POL) | 31 |
| PRODUCTION CUP - CO-DRIVERS | ||
| POS | CO-DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | David ŠMEIDLER (CZE) | 42 |
| 2 | Jurgen HEIGL (AUT) | 39 |
| 3 | Leop WELSERSHEIMB (AUT) | 38 |
| 4 | Žilvinas SAKALAUSKAS (LTU) | 37 |
| 5 | Jaroslav BARAN (POL) | 31 |
| TEAMS | ||
| POS | TEAM | PTS |
| 1 | GPD MIT METAL RACING TEAM | 93 |
| 2WD - TEAMS | ||
| POS | TEAM | PTS |
| 1 | EUROSOL RACING TEAM HUNGARY | 50 |
| PRODUCTION CUP - TEAMS | ||
| POS | TEAM | PTS |
| 1 | TEAM RENAULT SPORT TECHNOLOGIES | 43 |
| 2 | NAPOCA RALLY ACADEMY | 43 |
| LADIES TROPHY | ||
| POS | DRIVER | PTS |
| 1 | Ekaterina STRATIEVA (BGR) | 3 |
See you next at France for 5th round of ERC - Tour de Corse on May 16, 2013.
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