Nasser Al-Attiyah grabbed a record-extending sixth Cyprus Rally victory on a pivotal day in the battle for European Rally Championship glory.
With Briton Chris Ingram (Toksport WRT) finishing in second place following the disqualification of Simos Galatariotis due to a parc fermé infringement and Russia’s defending champion Alexey Lukyanuk retiring with technical issues, Ingram will take a lead of 18 points to the inaugural Rally Hungary season decider from 8-10 November, when Łukasz Habaj will make it a three-way battle for the title.
The Pole, who lost time due to an electrical issue on the closing leg, is back up to second in the standings, six ahead of Lukyanuk in the hunt for European rallying’s top prize.
While the overall ERC title remains firmly up for grabs, Juan Carlos Alonso and Juan Pablo Monasterolo put the ERC2 crown beyond doubt with a battling drive to fourth in class after brake problems caused the Argentines plenty of anguish in the sweltering Cypriot sunshine.
There was also title success for Efrén Llarena and Sara Fernández in ERC3, the Spanish federation pair making the most of the opportunity handed to them by the Peugeot Rally Academy to compete in Cyprus for the first time.
Former World Rally Championship star Mikko Hirvonen’s one-off return to the ERC following a 17-year absence netted a fine third overall. Niki Mayr-Melnhof celebrated an ERC-best fifth behind Habaj, Albert von Thurn und Taxis scored a season-high sixth ahead of Chilean ERC rookie Emilio Fernández.
Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, four-time Hungarian champion Norbert Herczig and Brazilian Paulo Nobre completed the top 10. Bulgaria’s Ekaterina Stratieva topped the ERC Ladies’ Trophy classification for the Saintéloc Junior Team.
Leg two report: Ingram takes control of ERC title race as Al-Attiyah wins in Cyprus
A trio of stage wins on Sunday morning ensured Nasser Al-Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel had a comfortable gap for the final loop of the rally in their Autotek Motorsport Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.
Alexey Lukyanuk (Saintéloc Junior Team) had been all set for second position, electing to take a steadier approach rather than try to chase after Al-Attiyah. But disaster struck on stage 10, when a technical failure little more than a kilometre from the finish of Kapouras ended his challenge.
That promoted last year’s event winner Simos Galatariotis (Petrolina Racing Team) to a popular second place, the reigning Cypriot champion well behind Al-Attiyah but clear of Chris Ingram (Toksport WRT) until his disqualification. Ingram’s second place was a vital result in light of Lukyanuk’s retirement, giving him an 18-point title advantage over Łukasz Habaj (Sports Racing Technologies).
Habaj had been battling Ingram for fourth position early on in leg two, reducing the gap down to 6.2s after stage eight. But a spin on stage nine cost Habaj half a minute, and his rally got worse from there.
An electrical fault left Habaj unable to use more than 30 per cent throttle on his ŠKODA Fabia R5 during the afternoon loop, costing him nearly two minutes across three stages. To add salt to the wound, his intercom began to fail on Kourdali, the middle stage of the final loop.
Those factors combined dropped him behind Mikko Hirvonen (MM-Motorsport) into what would become fourth place, though he managed to keep the charging Niki Mayr-Melnhof at bay.
Hirvonen’s one-off ERC appearance was about “having fun” and the 15-time World Rally Championship event winner got stuck into Cyprus Rally’s twisty roads, completing an incident-free rally in an eventual third place, a minor brake issue on Saturday his only cause for concern.
Behind Habaj, Mayr-Melnhof finally had a chance to show off his true pace, finishing leg two as the third-fastest driver ahead of both Ingram and Hirvonen. The Austrian had begun Sunday down in P11 after an array of technical woes had slowed his Ford Fiesta R5 on Saturday, but he bounced back emphatically and picked his way up to fifth, finishing only 19.6s behind Habaj.
Albert von Thurn und Taxis (Baumschlager Rallye & Racing) scored his best result of the ERC season with sixth place, ending a run of three retirements in a row by turning in an extremely consistent performance, setting top 10 times on all but the opening stage of the rally.
Emilio Fernàndez (Toksport WRT) clinched seventh place on his Cyprus Rally debut, with Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and Norbert Herczig (MOL Racing Team) next up. Al-Kuwari had started the day eighth and at the head of a multi-car midfield battle but fell back to P11, recovering to eighth thanks to problems for others.
One of those drivers was Herczig, who had been going toe-to-toe with Mayr-Melnhof as both rocketed up the leaderboard. But a landing impact broke Herczig’s front driveshaft on stage eight, costing him several minutes and dropping him to the back of the multi-car fight.
Paulo Nobre (Palmeirinha Rally) finished a solid P10 ahead of Tibor Érdi Jr (Érdi Team Kft.). The ŠKODA Fabia R5 pair had begun leg two fighting tooth and nail, at one point separated by just 0.1s, but the battle went decisively in Nobre’s favour when Érdi was delayed by an off into a stream, which resulted in his car’s radiator filling with mud and quickly overheating.
Rakan Al-Rashed (Toksport WRT) joined Lukyanuk on the retirements list but was out even earlier, only making it eight kilometres into the first stage of leg two before a power steering fire ended his rally.
PROVISIONAL TOP 10 POSITIONS (after 12 stages, 105.62 kilometres)
1 Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 3h02m51.3s
2 Chris Ingram (GBR)/Ross Whittock (GBR) ŠKODA Fabia R5 +3m5.9s
3 Mikko Hirvonen (FIN)/Jarmo Ottman (FIN) Ford Fiesta R5 +4m34.0s
4 Łukasz Habaj (PLN)/Daniel Dymurski (PLN) ŠKODA Fabia R5 +5m43.4s
5 Niki Mayr-Melnhof (AUT)/Poldi Welsersheimb (AUT) Ford Fiesta R5 +6m03.0s
6 Albert von Thurn und Taxis (DEU)/Bernhard Ettel (AUT) ŠKODA Fabia R5 +7m01.5s
7 Emilio Fernández (CHL)/Axel Coronado (ESP) ŠKODA Fabia R5 +8m07.7s
8 Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Marshall Clarke (GBR) ŠKODA Fabia R5 +8m50.8s
9 Norbert Herczig (HUN)/Ramón Ferenc (HUN) Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 +9m26.3s
10 Paulo Nobre (BRA)/Gabriel Morales (BRA) ŠKODA Fabia R5 +11m21.5s
FIA ERC2: Petros Panteli (CYP)/ Kyprianos Christodoulou (CYP) Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
FIA ERC3: Efrén Llarena (ESP)/Sara Fernández (ESP) Peugeot 208 R2
ERC Ladies’ Trophy: Ekaterina Stratieva (BGR) Peugeot 208 R2