ERC
Brynildsen moves into slender ERC Sweden lead from Østberg
Eyvind Brynildsen has moved into the lead of BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia after opening up a slender advantage over Mads Østberg on Friday morning.
Brynildsen had been locked in an enthralling fight for the lead with home hero Isak Reiersen across the morning’s four high-speed gravel stages in Sweden.
A brace of fastest times in SS2 (Grönlund) and SS3 (Värmskog) had given Reiersen’s Hankook-equipped Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 the rally lead by 0.5sec.
However, Brynildsen, piloting a Pirelli-shod Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, managed to nibble away at the Swede’s advantage across the second pass of the stages, to end the loop with a 1.2sec margin.
“It is a great fight. I enjoy it so much. It is something I want to do every day and the last time I was in the car was in January, so I just enjoy it. I’m living a dream. I will try to take the record at Colin’s Crest [this afternoon]. To win the rally you need to go flat out on the jump as well," said Brynildsen.
Østberg hauled himself into the fight for the lead
© ERC
That lead is now over fellow Norwegian, Østberg, who won SS5 (Värmskog) to leap ahead of Reiersen into second spot. Østberg had been slowly building his pace as he adjusted to a new co-driver in Lucas Karlsson.
“It is looking a bit better. I couldn’t get up to the speed I wanted and I need to change my focus away from trying to adapt [to the new co-driver] to being in race mode," said Østberg behind the wheel of a Michelin-equipped Citroen C3 Rally2.
Reiersen ended a strong morning sitting third, 2.4sec behind, but ahead of Frank Tore Larsen, with ERC Staff House Rally Hungary winner Roope Korhonen the top MRF-supplied driver in fifth, eight seconds adrift of the lead. The Finn moved up to fifth after Thursday’s Qualifying Stage pacesetter Philip Allen went off the road during SS5. Allen and co-driver Craig Drew were uninjured and hope to restart tomorrow.
“It will [be game on later]. It seems that I have a little bit of advantage on the second loop we will see about that. It felt good in here," said Reiersen, driving a Hankook-shod Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
“I was a little bit too hesitant on this Tarmac stuff when there is a lot of gravel in the road. I had a big side at the finish [of SS5] which made us laugh, we were close to the guardrails.”
Reiersen is locked in a battle for the lead
© ERC
Andrea Mabellini moved to sixth after suffering tyre damage in the day's opening stage. The top 10 was rounded out by ERC points leader Miko Marczyk, Mille Johansson, Simone Tempestini, who damaged a wheel in stage five, and Stéphane Lefebvre, who is making his first ERC appearance in a GR Yaris Rally2.
Max McRae suffered reported tyre damage in stage four that resulted in an off road excursion that broke the steering and a driveshaft on his Citroën C3 Rally2. Jon Armstrong had set the fastest time in the test where McRae hit trouble, but was forced to stop and change a wheel in the next stage, that demoted the M-Sport-Ford driver from ninth to 19th position.
Jos Verstappen leads the Master ERC class after Henning Solberg was issued a two-minute penalty for a breach of tyre regulations.
Tymek Abramowski heads FIA ERC3 in a Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta Rally3, a mere 1.9sec ahead of fellow Polish teenager Adrian Rzeźnik. Swede Victor Hansen had been setting the FIA ERC4 pace in his Peugeot 208 Rally4 but retired with driveshaft failure prior to the start of SS4.
BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia continues with a loop of four stages this afternoon, beginning with the first pass through Gåardsjö, scheduled to start at 13:54 local time.
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