PUNCTURE CAN’T DENY GRYAZIN BUT STEWARDS CAN
Nikolay Gryazin thought he’d done enough for WRC2 glory – and hand Skoda’s Fabia RS a debut victory at World championship level – despite a puncture shrinking his once commanding lead on
Saturday afternoon.
The Russia-born driver topped the Rally2 category by 46.7s with 13 stages run only for a front-right deflation five miles from the end of leg three’s closing stage to hand Yohan Rossel an unlikely shot at victory.
Starting Sunday’s four-stage leg 15.2s behind Gryazin, Rossel was quickest on SS15 and SS16 to close to within 9.7s of his rival. Gryazin dug deep to win the penultimate stage and lead by 10.1s, a performance that left his Pirellis badly worn for the deciding test.
Rossel was fastest in his works-supported Citroen but his stage-winning margin of 5.6s seemingly wasn’t enough to deny Toksport-run Gryazin, who took the class victory by 4.5s.
But a protest from Rossel’s PH
Sport team after evidence came to light that Gryazin had cut a corner on SS14 was upheld by the stewards. They handed Gryazin a 5.0s penalty, which gave Rossel the win by 0.5s despite Gryazin arguing the puncture had led to the incident.
Rossel could have taken the win on the road had he not stalled at the start of the first stage, a moment that cost the 2021 WRC3 champion approximately five seconds.
Stephane Lefebvre was 0.6s ahead of Pepe Lopez in the battle for third but was forced to change a punctured rear tyre on his Citroen on SS16, which handed the Hyundaidriving Spaniard an unchallenged run to the final podium spot.
Czech Erik Cais, on his Skoda debut, M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux and Chris Ingram filled out the top six places, the Briton the best of the previousgeneration Fabia drivers.
Francois Delecour topped the
WRC Masters category.