Barum Rally Zlin 2009: Leg 1 Results: Kopecky dominates

Kopecky5 Barum Rally Zlin 2009: Leg 1 Results: Kopecky dominates

Jan Kopecky has withstood the weight of expectations from an army of devoted fans, plus the furious pace of his rivals and a deluge over the final three stages to lead the 2009 Barum Czech Rally Zlin by more than a minute at the end of the opening leg.

Kopecky has taken six stage wins from the eight run today in a towering performance. The extremely fast and often very rough stages were described by the Skoda Motorsport driver as ‘brutal’ with no quarter being given among the leading contenders. Nevertheless he was able to build his lead through the day despite losing stage victories to championship leader Kris Meeke and his team mate Juho Hanninen.

Second place at the overnight halt is held by Freddy Loix, the Belgian Peugeot driver having run consistently in the top group throughout the day. Loix nevertheless goes into the final day fighting a rearguard action against the Peugeot UK entry of championship leader Kris Meeke.

Having started the day in 33rd place, Meeke charged up into fourth place over the first three stages of the day. Thereafter he found it difficult to close in on the top three runners despite winning SS4, but as conditions worsened his pace improved and, with Giandomenico Basso’s dramatic departure from the event on SS8, he holds third place and is just 8.4s behind Loix.

Fourth place is held by the second works Skoda of Juho Hanninen, who won last night’s city centre stage in Zlin and SS6, but struggled to maintain his pace in between these two victories. He has nevertheless recovered and is now battling to hold off the Peugeot of three-time Barum Czech Rally Zlin winner Roman Kresta.

Having initially struggled to acclimatise to his new Peugeot 207 S2000, BF Goodrich Drivers Team entry Martin Prokop has got up to speed and has climbed up to sixth place at the overnight halt, ahead of fellow WRC regular Evgeny Novikov’s privately-entered Skoda. Luca Rossetti in the second works Abarth has overcome a difficult first day to resume his place in the points-winning positions, ahead of the leading Ralliart contender, local man Vaclav Pech.

In the IRC 2WD Cup the talents of the local drivers have prevailed after front-running Honda competitors Marcel Piepers and Martin Knudsen crashed out. At the overnight halt the lead is held by the Abarth of Jiri Skoupil from a quartet of Hondas led by Egon Smekal, with IRC regular Denis Millet holding sixth in his Peugeot 207.

Overall Positions

1 Kopecky (CZ) – Skoda – 1hr 27m 22.1s
2 Loix (B) – Peugeot – +1m 1.6s
3 Meeke (UK) – Peugeot – +1m 10.0s
4 Hanninen (FIN) – Skoda – +1m 29.3s
5 Kresta (CZ) – Peugeot – +1m 42.2s
6 Prokop (CZ) – Peugeot – +2m 20.5s
7 Novikov (RUS) – Skoda – +2m 42.0s
8 Rossetti (I) – Abarth – +2m 50.9s

2WD Cup

1 Millet (F) – Peugeot – 1hr 33m 13.6s
2 Skoupil (CZ) – Abarth – +6m 17.8s
3 Laszlo (HUN) – Honda - +7m 32.0s

For further information please visit www.ircseries.com