The rain and low temperatures persisted in the Central Europe Rally in spite of having left Romanian soil and returned to Hungary. After yesterday’s last special in Baia Mare, the caravan of participants and assistance moved to the Hungarian town of Debrecen, where they spent the night.
Very early this morning – before dawn- the motorbike riders were the first to complete the first 213 Km connection with Dabas, where the the first Central Europe Rally special was disputed last Sunday. After completing today’s first special in Dabas -62 Km- the participants had to make another 201 Km long connection to the town of Vezsprem, where they raced today’s second 88 Km special. A complicated day for the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart members. The conditions present in today’s two specials, with a lot of mud and soft ground, were not the ideal for proper performance of the Mitsubishi MPR13’s, which were not particularly comfortable racing under these conditions. However, Stèphane Peterhansel maintained his lead, conceding only 34 seconds to the second driver in the general classification, De Villiers. The Frenchman was sixth in the first special, and seventh in the second. Those who did have problems maintaining their positions in the general classification were Alphand and Roma. The first driver ran the tenth fastest time in the first special and sixth in the second, falling to this same position in the general classification – yesterday he was third-. Spaniard Nani Roma, fourth yesterday in the general classification, finished today in ninth position in the first special and eighth in the second, which has dropped him to seventh place in the general classification after a complicated day. As for the motorcycling category, Jordi Viladoms was much more competitive on a terrain where he feels more comfortable on his bike. According to Jordi Arcarons, Repsol KTM Team Manager, we’ve changed the scenario and terrain. Yesterday we left Romania and returned to the special we ran on the first day, and we were familiar with it. Although we expected sand and uneven ground, they’d gone over the track with a bulldozer and fixed it; quite incredible. We’ve reached the final stretch of the race, where a number of stages will be disputed, some longer than others. It’s a slightly stony track, with some gravel and also some sand. It looks like the riders miss conditions which demand skillful riding, because with a route like this one you can’t go wrong, because the slightest mistake is impossible to recover from. Viladoms had a problem a couple of days ago with a misleadingly notified change of course in the roadbook where he lost eight minutes, and hasn’t recovered them, which is a bit demotivating. But today, Viladoms, in spite of the difficulty in recovering ground in the general classification, climbed two positions after racing the sixth fastest time in the first special and eighth in the second. Tenth in the general classification, the Repsol KTM rider will continue to try to recover lost ground tomorrow on a terrain which better suits his KTM 690 Rally bike.Stèphane PeterhanselThis morning’s special was practically the same as last Sunday’s. I think that our rivals were at an advantage when you had to pull fast out of the tight bends, and building up a good pace was harder than yesterday or Monday. This afternoon wasn’t as fun, maybe less predictable, because there were places where we met other drivers who were travelling on parallel tracks, and it was hard to be sure whether we were on the right path. What’s more, it was very windy and a lot of the ribbons that marked the route were broken. We’ll stay in the Lake Balatòn area for what’s left of the rally, and it won’t be easy if the rest of the drivers continue to reduce my advantage. At least we’re still in the lead, which means that they’ll have to keep pushing hard, though we have no intention of being caught up with and will continue to defend our lead.Luc AlphandIt was complicated, but Gilles -Picard- did a great job today. The day didn’t start off too well, as the windscreen wiper on my side broke when it hit a protruding branch, and didn’t work for the rest of the first special, and it just didn’t stop raining. It wasn’t our easiest day, but there are still more stages left and we’re going to struggle right until the end.Nani Roma It wasn’t an easy day. I thought I’d done quite well in the first special, but was surprised when I saw the times that some of our rivals raced. Slow bends followed by long straights, where above all what you need is good acceleration, are not the best conditions for our cars. Then, in the afternoon, we lost some time looking for the right path among all the possible ones there were in this military area. it was quite tough in some areas, but our Mitsubishi Montero MPR13 still performs with exact precision.Jordi Viladoms >> Audio In the morning we covered the same special we did the first day, quite sandy and on a reasonably good track, especially compared to the last few days, with all the mud and stones. The track today was a relief, because we were able to enjoy the bike again, and to top it off the day went quite well. The second special got a bit more complicated as far as navigation was concerned, because they’ve concentrated the special in a particular area, and we were passing quite close to other vehicles that were travelling in the opposite direction. It was easy to make shortcuts because you could see the riders who were ahead of you, and it’s possible that some may have missed the odd waypoint. I made two navigation mistakes, and don’t really know how much time I lost, because many of the ribbons were broken, there were furrows everywhere, and we have yet to see if the rest made similar mistakes too. It was definitely a complicated special, navigation-wise.
