Skoda Motorsport’s Jan Kopecky won the 45th Canon Mecsek Rallye by the smallest margin in the history of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) after a dramatic final day of action. In an event marked by close battles throughout the field, Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg’s Thierry Neuville won the final stage but lost out to the Czech driver overall by just 0.8sec.
Right up until the penultimate stage, this rally looked like it belonged to Skoda UK’s Andreas Mikkelsen. The Day One rally leader started Day Two strongly, built an advantage with a commanding early stage win, then backed off too much on the first stage of the afternoon on Day Two. With the pressure back on, 6.2km into SS13 Mikkelsen slid wide on gravel in a fast right-hand corner and the back of his car hit a tree. He was able to keep the heavily damaged Fabia S2000 moving until the next junction, where he was able to park it safely.
“We had the perfect weekend up until stage thirteen,” he said. “We had led from the start, I was driving smart, Ola [Floene] was doing an amazing job and the car was faultless. I’m so disappointed about what happened. Our rally came to an end on an uphill fast right-hand corner over a crest, and where it tightened a little there was gravel all over the road. It was a repeat of a stage we’d done this this morning, and the first time through there was no gravel. Even on the second run there was a nothing on the road until that point. When we hit the gravel there was no grip at all and we slid off the road in sixth gear and hit a tree. We are getting so close to winning a rally now, it’s just a shame we couldn’t fulfil it here.”
The battle for the lead between the Skoda teammates wasn’t the only story of the event. Peugeot’s Thierry Neuville was third overall and began the Day Two within striking distance of the leader. There could be no question of team orders up front as Neuville racked up a succession of stage wins, and after Mikkelsen’s retirement Neuville ended the penultimate stage 8.1sec behind new leader Kopecky.
To close the gap over the remaining 17.7km would be a tall order, and so it proved. Neuville won the final stage convincingly but fell just short of overall victory, by 0.8sec. Could they have snatched victory in the final stage? Neuville and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul will be pondering that between now and the next round.
“Unfortunately I absolutely wanted to modify a pace note in a very fast section, and I didn’t have time to tell him the pace note for afterwards,” said Gilsoul. “The corner tightened so we had a big moment. But Thierry has very good car control and we had a bit of luck.”
Freddy Loix brought his BFO-Skoda home third. Having shown speed on Day One, he couldn’t hit the same heights on the second.
“It’s a combination of factors,” he said. “The feeling of the car is better, I have a good feeling but I’m losing a few seconds here and there. I can see where I’m losing but I can’t react for the stage after, so it’s always the same silly mistakes. It’s not a question of gravel on the road. If I feel well, like in the Barum Rally, gravel is no problem. It’s more about being on the big attack and about confidence.”
Confidence had been a problem for Peugeot France’s Bryan Bouffier on the Day One as he struggled with setup issues and lack of trust in the veracity of his pace notes. On Day Two he was within the top five on every stage, but the overall gap to the leaders was too great for the Rallye Monte Carlo winner to overcome.
Fifth fell to Hermann Gassner Jr in only his second asphalt rally in the Red Bull Skoda. Gassner improved continuously throughout the event, beginning just outside the top ten and ultimately passing more experienced entrants on merit. By Day Two’s morning he was posting stage times well within the top ten, and was fourth quickest over the last two stages.
It was only on the penultimate stage that Gassner unseated local IRC Production Cup entrant Gyorgy Aschenbrenner, who used his local knowledge to remarkable effect. Regularly setting top ten stage times aboard his Ralliart Lancer Evolution IX, Aschenbrenner delighted the local fans and drew one of the biggest crowds in the Service Park.
Brake problems on the first day consigned Toni Gardemeister to the lower portion of the top ten, and his counter-attack this morning was hindered by a misfire on SS1. On Day Two’s afternoon, though, the TGS Worldwide Skoda came on song and Gardemeister had no complaints.
Hungarian entrant Robert Butor finished eighth after a strong run, beating several IRC regulars in his Peugeot 207 S2000: “We are very happy. For us the Hungarian championship was the most important and in this we are second, so it’s good.”
Bruno Magalhaes was ninth in the Peugeot Sport Portugal 207 S2000, having solved the setup and gear ratio issues that hindered him on Day One.
Beppo Harrach rounded out the top ten in a Ralliart Lancer Evolution IX, though Karl Kruuda – who suffered a puncture in SS12 – was just 2.1sec behind after the final stage.
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION:
01) J. Kopecky/P. Stary
Skoda Fabia S2000 – 02h 00m 06.7s
02) T. Neuville/N. Gilsoul
Peugeot 207 S2000 + 0.08s
03) F. Loix/F. Miclotte
Skoda Fabia S2000 + 01m 00.0s
04) B. Bouffier/X. Panseri
Peugeot 207 S2000 + 01m 25.6s
05) H. Gassner Jr/T. Gottschalk
Skoda Fabia S2000 + 02m 32.5s
06) G. Aschenbrenner/P. Zsuzsa
Ralliart Lancer Evo IX + 02m 38.2s
07) T. Gardemeister/T. Suominen
Skoda Fabia S2000 + 03m 05.6s
08) R. Butor/I. Bacigal
Peugeot 207 S2000 + 03m 16.8s
09) B. Magalhaes/P. Grave
Peugeot 207 S2000 + 03m 51.7s
10) B. Harrach/A. Schindlbacher
Ralliart Lancer Evo IX + 02m 38.2s
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