ERC 3
Home ERC3 glory for Abramowski
Tymek Abramowski maintained his overnight advantage to make it two FIA ERC3 wins in a row – and claim the provisional championship lead – following a fine display on home soil.
Despite living 70 kilometres from the event base in Mikołajki, Abramowski was making his Rally Poland debut having previously been too young to tackle the event’s legendary high-speed gravel stages.
But the 18-year-old made light of his lack of experience – and a persistent power issue – to get the better of Ville Vatanen, also 18, for the second event running as Tristan Charpentier claimed third place after myriad delays.
“It’s a nice feeling for sure,” said the Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta Rally3 driver, who was co-driven by Jakub Wróbel “A lot of work was put into this rally by our team. We are very happy and we want to continue like this on the Tarmac rallies. It won’t be easy but we want to try at least. The last stage we had to go on a hard push to be sure the guys behind would not catch us. It was not easy but we are here. It’s not easy to debut on any rally but we are prepared for that and happy with the result.”
Ville Vatanen survived a late scare to finish second
© ERC
Abramowski, who was the leading ERC Fiesta Rally3 Trophy contender, began leg two 8.6sec ahead of Vatanen but was able to stretch his advantage to 18.1sec when the Finn overshoot a junction on Sunday’s opener. Vatanen then cut that gap to 12.7sec starting the Power Stage where his challenge almost came unstuck.
“It’s a really good feeling, one of the most challenging rallies I have ever driven and the roads are so different to what I’m used to driving in Finland,” Vatanen said. “In the last half of the last stage there was a soft corner. We got some dirt in the radiator and we had warning lights that the engine temperature was too high so I came to the finish with half-gas but it was enough for second place. It’s unbelievable.”
Chapentier, meanwhile, reported damper and driveshaft problems, a handbrake fault and a power issue on the final stage. “Three times the car turned off on the last stage, what can I do? I cannot do more than what I did. For me finishing third I don’t care, I could be winning easily.”
Tristan Charpentier overcame myriad issues to finish third
© ERC
Ex-kart racer Adam Łabuda finished fourth on his first gravel event and his ERC3 debut. Hubert Kowalczyk finished fifth with Casey Jay Coleman sixth and Błażej Gazda climbing to seventh. Igor Widłak took eighth as newcomer Tadeusz Bieńko claimed ninth.
Adam Grahn restarted on leg two after he retired on Saturday afternoon with ECU failure. He completed the top 10 ahead of Esmar-Arnold Unt, who stopped on leg one with broken front-left suspension.
Adam Sroka had been in the podium fight – he started leg two 1.8sec ahead of Charpentier in third place – but after suffering two damaged tyres on SS10, Sroka was forced to drive with considerable caution after depleting his supply of spare tyres. A mechanical issue forced his retirement on the Power Stage.
Adrian Rzeźnik was fastest on Friday evening’s Mikołajki Arena super special but retired his Fiesta from leg one with two damaged tyres. He underlined his potential by setting a brace of top-two stage times upon his return to action on Sunday.
The FIA ERC3 Championship continues on the all-asphalt Rally di Roma Capitale from 4 - 6 July.
