Rally-eMag 016 February 2014 | Página 34

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!”