ERC
Mighty Meeke ahead in Wales as Suninen closes in on ERC crown
Kris Meeke fended off Teemu Suninen’s advances to lead JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion with Suninen focused on the bigger picture.
Starting out 0.9sec behind Suninen following Friday’s four stages, which included two run at night, Meeke charged through the day-opening 12.02-kilometre Aberffrwd test to lead by 11.9sec after Suninen spun exiting a tight right-hand turn after 4.49kms and dropped more than 10sec.
With SS6 cancelled for safety reasons, Pirelli-equipped Suninen had to wait until SS7 to begin his recovery. By going 5.7sec quicker than Michelin-shod Meeke through the 20.71-kilometre stage, he reached the midday service halt in Aberystwyth 7.0sec behind five-time FIA World Rally Championship event winner Meeke.
Teemu Suninen opted not to push for the lead, rather focusing on the title
© At World
But a trio of consecutive stage wins from Meeke left the Northern Irish-born driver leading by 19.4sec ahead of the day-closing pair of runs through the Aberystwyth super special. After trailing ERC champion Miko Marczyk through the first pass, he went fastest of all on the repeat to secure an overnight lead of 20.5sec.
“That’s probably one of the most enjoyable days of Tarmac rallying that I’ve ever done,” said Meeke, who is competing in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. “The stages are just incredible, there’s so many interesting things in them, changes of rhythm, there’s bumps and jumps, there’s technical and there’s flat out. The Toyota has been working incredible, the Michelin tyres. Honestly, when the package is right it makes my job easy.”
Although Suninen faces a tall order to land his second win of the season at the wheel of his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, he will start Sunday’s final four stages in a strong position to become European champion.
Miko Marczyk held onto a podium position going into Sunday
© At World
With closest opponent Andrea Mabellini down in seventh, Suninen will take the title providing he finishes no lower than second and Mabellini finishes no higher than seventh and fails to bank more than one point on the Power Stage.
“For the championship it’s a really good place, it’s exactly where we want to be. It’s been an honour to drive with Meeke and to see how fast we can go with these cars. It’s tempting to push on the same level but I realised we have the pace to match, not to catch.”
Behind Suninen, Marczyk is third overnight, one place ahead of fellow Pole Jakub Matulka. Max McRae poised for his best-ever ERC finish with Osian Pryce climbing up from eighth to sixth ahead of Mabellini.
Meirion Evans and MRF-shod pair Erik Cais and Simone Tempestini rounded out the top 10.
Pierre Ragues was in 11th place before a high-speed spin on SS8 forced him to stop for the day. Sam Touzel had been ahead of Ragues but crashed into retirement on SS5.
Max McRae is the best-positioned of the BRC regulars
© At World
Ville Vatanen held the advantage in FIA ERC3 and will become champion by finishing. Casey Jay Coleman and Kalum Graffin are second and third respectively in the Rally3-based division.
Tom Heindrichs, despite being hampered by a 10sec penalty for a late check-in on Friday evening, demoted ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team stablemate Timo Schulz for the lead of the FIA ERC4 and FIA Junior ERC categories on SS10, going ahead by 0.03sec. But his German rival would claim back the advantage across both runs of the Aberystwyth super special to complete the day 0.08sec ahead.
JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion will be decided Sunday with four stages in store over a timed distance of 63.80 kilometres. The 20.64-kilometre Gorsgoch stage is up first from 08:15 local time, while the finish in Aberystwyth is set to begin at 15:05.
Watch the action live on Rally.TV and follow all the news, stage times and results via the Live Centre.
