With Szymon Gospodarczyk co-driving, Polish
hero Marczyk was fastest by 0.2sec through the 1.85-kilometre night stage, much
to the delight of the thousands of fans who watched the action from several
vantage points along the route.
“That’s nice we are starting like that,”
Marczyk said. “It’s a demanding stage, it’s easy to make some fault but in the
past I was okay on these type of stages.”
With a faulty switch on his Škoda Fabia RS
Rally2 hastily repaired after he took the ceremonial start on an electric
scooter, Andrea Mabellini went second fastest for Team MRF Tyres as
championship leader Hayden Paddon rounded out the top three in his
Pirelli-equipped Hyundai i20 N Rally2.
Simone Tempestini reckoned he lost time
trying to take the donuts too perfectly but was still fourth quickest, one
place ahead of Paddon’s ERC title rival Mathieu Franceschi, while Polish
championship leader Jarosław Szeja was next up.
Back in ERC action after recovering from
serious injury sustained in a French championship crash in June, Yoann Bonato
was seventh fastest in his Citroën C3 Rally2, 0.7sec quicker than Polish super
special specialist Łukasz Byśkiniewicz. M-Sport’s Jon Armstrong and Zbigniew
Gabryś rounded out the top 10.
Hubert
Kowalczyk completed one donut too many in his Renault Clio Rally3, as Junior ERC champion Mille Johansson clocked the fastest time in
ERC3 on his step up to Rally3 level ahead of 2022 title winner Igor Widłak.
ACI Team Italia’s Davide Pesavento set the
pace in ERC4 and the Hankook-equipped Junior ERC category followed by ADAC Opel
Rally Junior Team’s Calle Carlberg.
Michał Chorbiński’s hopes of a home ERC4 win
suffered an early setback due to a powersteering issue aboard his Peugeot 208
Rally4. Ciprian Lupu was delayed completing the stage after he stalled his
Renault Clio Rally5
Rally Silesia resumes tomorrow (Saturday)
with the 17.04km Jastrzębie Zdrój stage from 09:00 local time.
Japan
Poland
Turkey