Junior ERC
Carlberg follows the plan to top Junior ERC order
Calle Carlberg is the FIA Junior ERC driver to beat on ORLEN OIL 81st Rally Poland after he followed his battle plan to perfection across leg one today (Saturday).
The Opel Corsa Rally4 ace heads Jaspar Vaher (Lancia Ypsilon Rally4) by 28.2sec in the Hankook-supplied category with Ioan Lloyd making it three different manufacturers in the top three by completing the opening leg in third place at the wheel of a Peugeot 208 Rally4.
“We had a plan before the day and we followed it perfectly,” ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team-run Carlberg said. “On stage five, when it was really rough, I just took the pace down a bit. We lost nine seconds to Jaspar but he had some damage to the radiator so was quite lucky to finish the day. We just followed our plan, no damage, everything was all good and we’ve just been enjoying the stages. The car has been great, nothing to complain about.”
Vaher was fastest on the first run through the Mikołajki Arena super special on Friday evening but completed SS3 38.1sec behind new leader Carlberg – quickest on Saturday’s opening two stages – after a damaged front-right tyre nearing the finish of SS3 left the Estonian momentarily stuck on a bank at a junction.
Vaher overcame a radiator issue to complete leg one in second
© ERC
The MS Munaretto driver responded by going fastest on SS4 and SS5 although his charging run on the first stage of the afternoon came at a price, as he explained. “We were the fastest on stage five, driving with our own pace because the road was so destroyed. But we got damage at the front to the radiator, we had to repair the radiator and deal with the cooling.
“On the next two stages I was all the time controlling the water temperature and we also had some problems managing the tyres. When we got to the stop control [of SS5] I saw the steam coming, but you have to keep this mentality to go on, but of course it was risky and I wasn’t sure for the next two stages. I was looking at what could be the damage and quite soon I realised it was the water. But also thanks to Sergi [Pérez] who gave some advice to me, he’s really smart in those situations so big thanks to him.”
Tuukka Kauppinen was third after four stages in the second Munaretto Lancia only for two deflated rear tyres on SS5 to leave him in 12th position at the end of leg one.
The Finn’s delay let in Lloyd for third with Craig Rahill fourth for the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, albeit just 3.0sec behind after Welshman Lloyd’s Peugeot cut out several times on the day-closing Mikołajki super special repeat.
Rahill is in a close battle for third place
© ERC
Mark-Egert Tiits in fifth with Pérez in sixth after the Spaniard drove from SS6-SS8 with a damaged front-left damper.
Keelan Grogan is seventh heading into Sunday’s deciding leg followed by Tomasso Sandrin, who picked up front-right tyre damage on SS3.
Aoife Raftery is ninth with Simon Andersson completing the top 10 on his first start in an Opel Corsa Rally4 having switched from Renault Clio power.
Victor Hansen, the delayed Kauppinen, Francesco Dei Ceci and Artur Luca – driving a Renault Clio Rally5 – completed leg one in positions 11-14 respectively.
Leevi Lassila stopped with a broken oil cooler, caused by hitting a bump, on SS5. Maxim Decock retired on the same stage.
The battle for Polish Junior ERC glory concludes tomorrow (Sunday) with a further six stages and 85.60 competitive kilometres. The first pass of the 7.60-kilometre Mikołajki stage is first from 08:00 local time.
