Gryazin extends ERC Liepāja lead as Ingram survives near miss
ByERC
Published 14/10/2018 at 10:39 GMT
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AUTO - ERC LETTONIE RALLY - 2018
Image credit: ERC
With only three stages remaining of the FIA European Rally Championship season, Nikolay Gryazin is edging closer to victory on Rally Liepāja, as chief rival Chris Ingram had a near miss on stage nine.
Gryazin continued his stage-winning streak with fastest time on all three of leg two’s stages before midday service, extending his gap over second placed Ingram to 36.8s.
With victory in Liepāja a must for Ingram to rival Gryazin for the ERC Junior Under 28 championship title, the Toksport WRT driver continued to push hard. But Ingram nearly pushed too far near the end of stage nine, dipping two wheels off and into a ditch and having to power out at full speed to avoid going off completely.
Fellow young star in an R5 car Fredrik Åhlin moved into third overall and in class on stage eight, demoting ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland’s young talent Fabian Kreim to fourth.
Kreim had an outside chance of beating both Gryazin and Ingram to ERC Junior U28 championship glory but, as it stands, will finish third in the title race.
Eyvind Brynildsen is on a charge through the field, picking off eSky Rally Team’s Łukasz Habaj for fifth on stage eight and only 9.3s behind Åhlin in third.
Stages eight and nine’s flat-out nature hurt Brynildsen’s pace, with his Ford Fiesta suffering in a straight line compared to his rivals’ ŠKODA Fabia R5. With the final three stages centred around the forests further north, he plans to pounce this afternoon.
ACCR Czech Rally Team’s Filip Mareš remains seventh, 35.8s behind sixth placed Habaj. Rhys Yates is eighth overall in ERC and sixth in ERC Junior U28, while Orhan Avcioğlu swept the gravel roads clean as first car on the road, heading to midday service in ninth.
ERC Junior Under 27 class leader Tom Kristensson is also P10 overall, 22.3s ahead of ADAC Opel Rallye Junior team-mate Mārtiņš Sesks.
ERC2 production class leader Sergei Remennik suffered a late drama on stage nine, arriving at the finish line spewing power steering fluid from his Russian Performance Motorsport Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
With victory in Liepāja a must for Ingram to rival Gryazin for the ERC Junior Under 28 championship title, the Toksport WRT driver continued to push hard. But Ingram nearly pushed too far near the end of stage nine, dipping two wheels off and into a ditch and having to power out at full speed to avoid going off completely.
Fellow young star in an R5 car Fredrik Åhlin moved into third overall and in class on stage eight, demoting ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland’s young talent Fabian Kreim to fourth.
Kreim had an outside chance of beating both Gryazin and Ingram to ERC Junior U28 championship glory but, as it stands, will finish third in the title race.
Eyvind Brynildsen is on a charge through the field, picking off eSky Rally Team’s Łukasz Habaj for fifth on stage eight and only 9.3s behind Åhlin in third.
Stages eight and nine’s flat-out nature hurt Brynildsen’s pace, with his Ford Fiesta suffering in a straight line compared to his rivals’ ŠKODA Fabia R5. With the final three stages centred around the forests further north, he plans to pounce this afternoon.
ACCR Czech Rally Team’s Filip Mareš remains seventh, 35.8s behind sixth placed Habaj. Rhys Yates is eighth overall in ERC and sixth in ERC Junior U28, while Orhan Avcioğlu swept the gravel roads clean as first car on the road, heading to midday service in ninth.
ERC Junior Under 27 class leader Tom Kristensson is also P10 overall, 22.3s ahead of ADAC Opel Rallye Junior team-mate Mārtiņš Sesks.
ERC2 production class leader Sergei Remennik suffered a late drama on stage nine, arriving at the finish line spewing power steering fluid from his Russian Performance Motorsport Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
The post Gryazin extends ERC Liepāja lead as Ingram survives near miss appeared first on FIA ERC | European Rally Championship.
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