ERC: Lotos Rally Poland / Rally review
Going through a fifth-gear right hand corner Kubica hit a rock breaking his right front wheel. Despite struggling to the end of the stage Kubica
was forced to retire. “I tried to make it to the finish as I thought we had some spare parts but we
don’t and it’s a shame. I thought at the beginning it was a puncture but in the end it was the
wheel.“
Another suffering from the atrocious conditions
on the day’s final stage was Estonian youngster
Martin Kangur. He had impressed many with
fastest time on the fifth stage. A powersteering
problem on the final stage caused him to crash
into a tree losing nearly two minutes (and all
hopes of a good result) in the process.
So, with all those guys losing time, who is up
in front? Not Craig Breen. The Irishman has
shown flashes of brilliance this season but failed
to make a similar impact in Poland. A puncture
early on caused him some time, but he never
looked the superstar-in-the-making as he has on
other events. He ended the day down in eigth.
Peugeot teammate Bryan Bouffier though was
up front. Capitalizing on his experience of the
Polish stages Bouffier jumped out in front from
the start. He won the first two stages to open
up a small gap to Robert Kubica. Later in the
afternoon he set another fastest time and when
Kubica faltered, he could take a little breather.
It would be a very little breather though as Kajetan Kajetanowicz quickly seized second place
and put the pressure back on Bouffier. At the
end of the day just under 17 seconds separated
the two with Solowow in third.
48/52
‘Semi-local’ Bryan Bouffier was immediately on the pace and fought till the end.
Battle Royale(?)
As the crews rolled over the start ramp for the
second day of the rally a great battle between
Bouffier and Kajetanowicz appaered to be on
hand. Both drivers have a lot of experience on
the event and Bouffier knows his Peugeot 207
S2000 like the back of his hand. Kajetanowicz
meanwhile had only done 200 kms of testing
in the new Fiesta R5 before starting the event.
Coming to grips with the car pretty quickly he
was getting faster and faster. Surely this would
be an awesome fight to the finish. Unfortunately
it wasn’t to be. Bouffier hit trouble on the very
first stage of the day. A broken right rear suspension damper spoiled his day. Rather than risking
everything Bouffier opted to ease off and nurture
his car to the finish to take a save second.
But eventually it was Kajetanowicz who jumped into the lead.