ERC1 Junior star Pierre-Louis Loubet is in the thick of the victory fight on the opening round of the 2019 FIA European Rally Championship, completing Thursday’s loop of three stages 3.1s behind defending champion Alexey Lukyanuk.
While Lukyanuk won all three stages this afternoon, ERC1 Junior class leader and Team OSCARO-backed Loubet was right behind him throughout, at one point finishing only 0.1s behind the Russian on the Mediana Remédios test.
There was a slight concern for Lukyanuk towards the end of the final stage as the dashboard and associated buttons in his Citroën C3 R5 were not functioning fully. Otherwise he said the day had been a “big relief”, adding: “It was a deep and long worry if we can be fast with this car, if I am still fast enough. I am really careful in the stages and still waking up because we had a very long break and only 40 kilometres before the rally with a new car. But things work well, almost no mistake and how it should be.”
Having switched to a ŠKODA Fabia R5 for 2019, Corsican Loubet admitted to being “surprised” by his pace. “It was a good first loop, difficult, very slippery and I’m surprised because the tyre choice was not a good one,” he said. “But in the end it’s not so far to Lukyanuk and I try to push a little bit more tomorrow. But it’s good to be in this position. After last year when it was all the time complicated, it’s a good feeling and I take a lot of pleasure. It’s been a long time since I take so much pleasure so it’s cool.”
Local hero Ricardo Moura, the winner in the Azores in 2016, holds the final podium place by 1.9s from Toksport WRT’s Chris Ingram, who is also sitting second in ERC1 Junior and only 9.9s off rally leader Lukyanuk. Ingram admitted he feared he’d picked up a puncture on SS1, which knocked his confidence on his first rally since last season’s ERC finale in Latvia.
Double ERC Junior title winner Marijan Griebel is fifth on his return to the ERC in a Baumschlager Rallye & Racing-prepared Volkswagen Polo GTI. The German champion had initially been, third but dropped back to sixth when he picked up a puncture while running off-line on SS2, though he swiftly recovered to finish the day in fifth, 10.4s off the lead.
Griebel demoted Sports Racing Technologies driver Łukasz Habaj to sixth on the day-ending Marques superspecial, one of two stages broadcast live on RTP Açores and streamed live on the official ERC website and Facebook page.
Bruno Magalhães is seventh, having struggled to find a good set-up aboard his Team Hyundai Portugal machine, while Ricardo Teodósio moved ahead of fellow ŠKODA Fabia R5 runner Luís Rego for eighth on Marques. Behind Rego in ninth, Norbert Herczig completes the top 10 for MOL Racing Team.
Portuguese pair and ARC Sport team-mates Migue Correia and Pedro Almeida are separated by a mere 0.3s in their battle over third place in ERC1 Junior. Both had been behind Alexandros Tsouloftas initially but the Cypriot sustained a puncture on the day-ending Marques test, which dropped him down to fifth in class, albeit only 2.9s off Correia in third. Tsouloftas described his day as his hardest in rallying so far running first on the road on his Azores Rallye debut.
Lukyanuk’s team-mate and ERC1 Junior contender Mattias Adielsson, racing under the Sweden National Team banner, was delayed by more than a minute due to gremlins in the sister C3 R5, which caused his car to stop on both SS2 and SS3 and dropped him to sixth place in ERC1 Junior. Despite his car troubles Adielsson is still within striking range in the ERC1 Junior battle, 20.8s behind Tsouloftas in sixth.
An incredible battle ensued over honours in ERC2, with Sergei Remennik leading Juan Carlos Alonso by a mere 0.3s. They swapped places on each stage, Alonso taking the lead away from Remennik on SS2 only to lose it again on SS3. Pedro Antunes leads ERC3 Junior and more details on the Pirelli-supported category are available in a separate press release available soon.
What’s next: Friday’s action features seven stages over 91.55 kilometres including two runs of the iconic Sete Cidades volcano stage with Pico da Pedra is up first from 09h53.
