Driving a Peugeot 208 Rally4 on Hankook tyres, Herczig was 25.0sec in the clear after leg one and was able to extend that advantage to 48.1sec over local hero Daniel Polášek as Pirelli-equipped Márton Bertalan completed an all-Peugeot podium.
“I can’t find the words, I’m really happy,” said the 21-year-old Hungarian Herczig, who registered seven stage wins during the course of Barum Czech Rally Zlín alongside co-driver Kristó Varga. “Our whole weekend was really good, the set-up worked really well on every stage. Huge thanks for the team, this car was perfect. These roads are quite similar to Hungary, really fast bumpy roads, which I really like. I didn’t know what to expect before I came here but we did our best.”
Polášek, who was appointed an ambassador for Barum Czech Rally Zlín earlier this year, was delighted to have bettered his previous best result of fourth.
He said: “The conditions were really difficult. We went on soft tyres this morning and I also wanted to go on Pindula with soft tyres but unfortunately we hit something with the left front and dismounted the tyre on Semetín. “We could still finish the stage without problem but we were not able to go with this soft tyre at the front on Pindula so we had to change it for medium which was a disadvantage. But it was my mistake.”
After finishing third with five stage wins, ex-fusbal player Bertalan (above) said: “The podium is the most important but I am not really happy because of yesterday’s results. But today was absolutely good. We won three stages, we won Pindula not only in ERC4 but also in RC4, so our pace was very good, it is very important for the next year.”
Having scored a personal best ERC4 result of fifth on Rally di Roma Capitale last month, wheelchair user Ciprian Lupu once again excelled to finish a fine fourth in his Renault Clio Rally5 on an event he was contesting for the first time.
Competing on Barum Czech Rally Zlín for the 15th time, Ekaterina Stratieva was a non-starter on leg two after she fell ill during the night. But following a visit to hospital in Zlín, Stratieva returned to the service park in Otrokovice where she outlined her plans to contest the season-deciding Rally Silesia in October at the wheel of her Opel Corsa Rally4.
Rali Ceredigion is next for the ERC4 drivers from 30 August - 1 September with the event also forming the resumption of the Hankook-equipped FIA Junior ERC Championship
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