Russia: stones as referee

The profile of the dirt roads of Rally Russia is reminiscent of that of Finland, but the surface is significantly sandier and strewn with stones with often aggressive edges. The Abarth Grande Punto S2000 experienced this on Thursday evening, in SS3, when Alén and Basso both suffered a puncture, each losing 55” in the adventure.
The next morning, SS5 was canceled due to car “0” going off the road. Basso suffered another puncture, at the front left, in SS6.

« Jan (editor's note: Kopecky) hit the same stone. The rim of his Skoda bent, but the air remained in the tire. It's the difference between bad luck and success », sighs the Italian. The last special of the morning was also the longest (30km). After barely 6km, Guy Wilks (Proton Satria Néo), who was then in a splendid third place, stopped to change wheels.

« JI didn't see anything on the surface, but I felt a shock. The sidewall of the tire did not resist. As there were almost 25km left to go, I had no choice but to use the spare wheel. In addition, I encountered problems using the jack. »

After his troubles the day before (power steering), Patrik Flodin (Subaru Impreza N14) suffered a broken wheel shaft in SS7. These various incidents allowed Skoda to fly through the race. Author of all the "scratches" since the start, Hänninen preceded, at the end of SS7, his teammate Kopecky by 49"9, Alén by 1'53"6, Basso by 2'19"6 and Flodin 4'08"2. Wilks is relegated to 7th position, 4'43"4 behind the leader.

If SS10 was canceled (see elsewhere), the positions were confirmed during the two previous specials, with two new scratch times from Juho Hanninen, who flew towards a deserved victory, having snatched the best time during the eight timed sections. At the end of the second day, he dominated Jan Kopecky by almost a minute (59"8), Giandomenico Basso being relegated to 2'47" behind the leader.