ERC: Rally Liepaja / Rally review
Just before the start Bouffier secured the necessary funding. Just after the start his raly
ended after a small off.
34/42
Where’s the snow?
In the days leading up to the event there was a
severe lack of snow around Liepaja. The recce
was done in almost completely dry circumstances and left the drivers wondering how to tackle
the gravel stages on their gravel tires. Out of nowhere however the snow came. And when it did
come, it came in bunches!
At the pre-event press conference Bryan Bouffier
was optimistic but cautious about his chances
“It’s the first time I will drive on tires with spikes,
but I have an excellent car and am happy
to be here.” As soon as the rally got underway
though, he made his intentions very clear by
winning the opening stage. Perhaps a bit too
Surprise of the rally was the impressive pace of Vasily Gryazin.
enthused by this initial performance it took only
three corners of the second stage to end all his
hopes of a good result. He ran wide and bumped
his car nose-first into a straw bale. This damaged
the radiator resulting in an, ironically given the
wintery surroundings, overheating engine.
Started from the bottom
The last of the official ERC entrants to start the
rally was Vasily Gryazin who ran seventeenth on
the road. This gave him a sizeable advantage
as his rivals had cleared the road in front of him.
This meant there were tracks to follow and less of
the slippery snow. Gryazin capitalized on this
opportunity and took stage wins on the next two
stages. In doing so he opened up a big lead of
over thirty seconds despite suffering from small
gearbox issues. After the midday lunch break
Esapekka Lappi started to find his groove. The
young Finn feels at home on these stages which
are quite similar to those he finds at hom in Finland. Running the stages for the second time
meant that Gryazin’s advantage of running as last
of the priority drivers was diminishing and Lappi
took full advantage. He won the first two stages
to half the gap to Gryazin to just over fifteen seconds. An awe inspiring performance on the final
stage of the day even put him in the lead of the
rally and put a smile on his face “It’s enjoyable
when there is a clean line and wide roads, you
can push, and this is nice!”