Kopecky made the hole

The first day of Barum Rally was not easy for the leaders. At the wheel of his Skoda Fabia S2000, Jan Kopecky honored his status as favorite by winning six of the eight stages contested on Saturday. After taking command from the first special stage of the day, the local driver attacked all day to extend his lead at the top of the general classification. “ It's very fast “, he indicated. “ We can't think for a second about slowing down to preserve the car because everyone is attacking. We were treated to a few drops of rain but not enough to affect us. It?s quite brutal. »

The day saw the leaders experience varying fortunes. Thus, Nicolas Vouilloz (Peugeot ), the 2008 IRC champion, had to retire in SS4 following a fire in his 207 S2000. Giandomenico Basso (Abarth) also retired a little later in SS8 when he was third in the provisional classification. The special has also been suspended. These two withdrawals followed those of the two Proton Satria Neo S2000s due to engine problems.

For his part, the leader of the general classification, Kris Meeke (Peugeot), managed to gradually move up the provisional hierarchy after having completely missed the opening special, Friday evening, where he gave up more than thirty seconds on Kopecky. 33rd starting this morning, the Briton is in third place this evening just behind Freddy Loix (Peugeot) and ahead of Juho Hanninen (Skoda) by around twenty seconds. The guests? of the rally, Martin Prokop (Peugeot) and Evgeny Novikov (Skoda) finished in sixth and seventh position. On Sunday, five stages are on the program with a finish scheduled for mid-afternoon.