Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Abbring builds up his lead during Saturday’s morning stages

30. 8. 2014 - Michael Kachlíř, Roman Ordelt, press centre BCRZ

The Peugeot Rally Academy factory team crew Kevin Abbring and Sebastian Marshall with their Peugeot 208 T16 confirmed their leading position in the first two stages of the Barum Czech Rally Zlín. The Dutch-British duo worked up their margin from the opening Super special stage. They won both stages Slušovice and Maják and are leading by 10, 4 seconds. The second place was taken by the Škoda Motorsport crew from Finland – Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm with Škoda Fabia S2000 followed by Craig Breen and Scott Martin duo with their factory Peugeot.

The Dutch driver Kevin Abbring became the king of Saturday's morning. After winning the super special stage they rule again. He won the part in Slušovice (total length of 16, 05 km); the Irish racer Craig Breen came in second with the loss of 6, 3 seconds. To the delight of the home fans the third one to reach the finish was Roman Kresta (Škoda Fabia S2000) falling behind by 6, 8 seconds. The fourth place was shared by Esapekka Lappi from Finland, Sepp Wiegand from Germany and Tomáš Kostka from the Czech Republic. Similarly to Friday's circuit the favourites haven't reached the top 10 again. Kajetan Kajetanowicz was 14th followed by Ott Tänak. The Czech champion Václav Pech (Mini John Cooper Works S2000) lost 12 seconds due to minor car troubles. Technical difficulties prevented Miroslav Jakeš (Citroën DS3 R5) and Pavel Urban (Škoda Fabia RS TDi) from entering the Saturday's stages.

Abbring dominated even in the classic stage of the rally called 'Maják' (8, 82 km long). The second fastest and still improving was Roman Kresta, Lappi came in third. The negligible differences between the drivers are proven by the fact that six of them finished within two-second interval. The favourite Tänak went out of road, thus losing by 40 seconds. Barrable from Ireland experienced steering problems, which cost him almost a one minute deficit.

Leading position in 2WD standings belongs to a Czech driver Adam Kobliha (Renault Clio R3), Egon Smékal (Citroën DS3) is only losing by 7, 3 seconds from the second place. The leader of the European Junior Championship Stéphane Lefebvre from France (Peugeot 208 R2) encloses the winning trio. Production cars are led by Martin Březík (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX) while the 2nd position is held by András Hadik from Hungary (Subaru Impreza STi R4) lagging by 8, 4 seconds.