Latest News 2010

Renault Clio
Kris Princen was off to a flying start yesterday as he took the lead amongst the Renault Clio R3. His retirement before stage 4 (broken alternator) left Kevin Abbring in a fairly lonely first place. Despite incurring a 10" penalty, the Flying Dutchman still leads the series 40 seconds ahead of Pierre Campana. Then there is a bigger gap. Allessandro Bettega and Eric Mauffrey are fighting for third place and are only 9", but 2'30" behind the class leader. Let's also not forget that Koen Lauwaert saw his race really cut short: he went off on SS2.

Citroën
Things were looking great in the Citroën C2 R2 MAX series with, amongst others, Weijs of The Netherlands and Martin McCormack of Ireland taking the fight to the many locals: Caren Burton, Raphaël Auquier, Matthias Boon, Davy Vanneste? Weijs and Burton were clearly faster than the rest, ahead of Boon and Auquier. The latter already dropped out on the first stage (electrical problems) while Weijs strengthened his grip on the lead. Weijs actually remains ahead of the pack, despite being on his 4th set of brake discs since the shakedown and having feared a problem with the throttle-body. Burton is still approximately half a minute behind on him, which is mostly down to a problem on SS4 (when oil ran onto the clutch). He solved the problem by sacrificing his own Coke and his crew solved the issue at the last service after taking the gearbox out. McCormack sits in third, some two minutes behind on Burton. He took benefited of Boon's retirement after SS10.

Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000) was fighting it out with Meeke from the first stages of the rally but now he has lost his most fierce adversary, he needs to manage his lead carefully. Staying concentrated is always the most difficult thing to do in such circumstances. "Fast Freddy" is not a novice however and he carefully lifts off, leaving all fastest times to his team-mate Jan Kopecký. The record-holder of the event did admit having a few brake issues on the Heuvelland stage though. Watch this space!

Thierry Neuville is defending the honour of Peugeot but sits quite isolated in his third spot. The only eventful thing was a spin on stage 10. Despite this, he still put the 3rd fastest time on the stage. On the shory Lille-Eurometropole stage (1.66 km/ SS13) he came very close, finishing 0"2 off Kopecký.

The GEKO Ypres Rally 2010 did not get started yet this morning or Bruno Magalhães (Peugeot 207 S2000) already saw himself pushed out of the top 10 due to the replacement of his greabox (1'10'' penalty for leaving the closed park too late). And things did not stop there as also Proven-Vleteren, the first stage, brings a few surprises.

Pieter Tsjoen is the first to fall victim of the stage as he destroys his Peugeot. Driver and co-driver are OK but the car is out. Still some happy faces in the Peugeot camp as Kris Meeke sets the fastest time ahead of Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000) beating him by... 0"1. Unfortunately, their joy was only short lived as the man from Ireland rolled his car on the Watou stage (SS 8). Thierry Neuville (Peugeot) hence moves up one position and could well get a podium finish. This also means Freddy Loix sow has a commanding advance of 30 seconds and race tactics change. "It was a really great fight. Now we will have to manage this lead and this might make things more difficult as we have to drive in a more 'strategic' way".

The 2010 edition of the GEKO Ypres Rally has sure gone off to a fantastic start. We've had the the first issues, the first retirements... in short, the first disappointments. The first three Škoda Fabias S2000 are setting the pace for the others. There is one exception of course, the Peugeot 207 S2000 of a certain Kris Meeke...

As in the first leg, Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000) and Kris Meeke (Peugeot 207 S2000) are fighting it out in front. The Belgian again won two out of three stages and doubles his advantage on the man of Ireland. He now leads the race by 5"8. "What a day !", says Freddy. "The car is really great and I am having great fun. The fight just started". The winner of last year does not seem to disagree. " A really great day. I cannot go much faster really. We're really flt out.¨ Needless to say tomorrow will be a warm day.

Sun and summer temperatures this afternoon at the GEKO Ypres Rally 2010. As usual, we're in for a hot debate from the first stages. This rally clearly will be a long one, as well for the tyres as for the cars...

And as from the leg, many drivers fell victim of these circumstances. Bernd Casier complained about overheated tyres on SS1 while Corrado Fontana lost about 2 minutes on the same stage due to a puncture. Juho Hänninen, Luca Betti and Andreas Mikkelsen all suffered a puncture near the finish of SS2. Melissa Debackere (electrical problems) and Kajetan Kajetanowicz (differential) saw their cars giving up on them and retired early.