Day report: Fortune favours Lukyanuk as ERC Junior U28 leader Kreim impresses

A two-time winner in 2018, Lukyanuk’s quest for a third win this season was aided by major rivals losing time and retiring outright, though had to cope with a broken rear roll-bar of his own throughout Saturday afternoon.

Though his lead is barely any larger than at midday service, Lukyanuk’s main chasers have changed multiple times throughout Saturday afternoon.

Giandomenico Basso is currently his main opposition despite a lack of familiarity with his ŠKODA Fabia R5 and a brand new co-driver in Moira Lucca.

He had been locked in a battle for second with fellow Italian championship competitor Simone Campedelli, until the Orange1 Racing driver’s day came to an end when two punctures left him without spare tyres to complete Saturday’s afternoon loop of stages.

Behind second placed Basso is ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland’s Fabian Kreim, who leads the ERC Junior Under 28 Championship category after Leg One.

In a performance reminiscent of his Rally Islas Canarias podium, Kreim methodically worked his way up the order with a series of clean stages absent of drama or errors, climbing from eighth to third by Leg One’s end.

He spent all of Saturday’s seven stages battling hard with Grzegorz Grzyb, swapping fractions of a second from stage to stage before establishing a 1.4s lead by day’s end.

Behind fourth placed Grzyb is 10 time Italian rally champion and spectator favourite Paolo Andreucci, turning in a mammoth performance after fracturing his lower vertebrae in a testing crash less than a week ago. He remains in the podium battle with Kreim and Grzyb, 7.6s behind Kreim in third.

A frustrated Bruno Magalhães finished Leg One sixth, his car’s engine cutting out and requiring a master reset more than once in the final two Saturday stages. The SEAJETS-backed driver had set his sights squarely on Kreim’s third place, but Magalhães’ intermittent power issue left him 31.5s adrift of a podium place instead.

ŠKODA Motorsport protégé Juuso Nordgren took a deliberately cautious approach to guide his Wevers Sport-prepared Fabia to seventh place, ahead of second placed ERC Junior U28 contender Chris Ingram.

Fredrik Åhlin was one of several drivers to pick up a puncture in stage five but was keen to focus on the positives, happy with his learning progression onasphaltwhile finishing Leg One in ninth. Ingram’s Toksport WRT team-mate Orhan Avcioğlu completed the Top 10.

Leg one recap: Lukyanuk and Kreim hold firm as rivals deflate

After two FIA European Rally Championship events in a row in which Alexey Lukyanuk crashed out, it was the turn of his rivals to experience misfortune on Rally di Roma Capitale, which also handed ERC Junior Under 28 leader Fabian Kreim a golden opportunity.

Fellow ERC Junior U28 pilot Nikolay Gryazin mounted a concerted challenge to Lukyanuk’s early pace, running within five seconds of the rally leader until stage four. A small engine fire coupled with power steering failure forced him to pull over before resuming, dropping three minutes and out of podium contention.

Lukyanuk had pinpointed Gryazin and Bruno Magalhães has the two drivers he wanted to beat. As Magalhães struggled in the lower half of the top 10 with set-up issues which made his car feel “soft” on Saturday morning’s loop, a quartet of Italian championship drivers circled close behind.

Umberto Scandola had won Rally di Roma Capitale twice in years past but was first to fall, a technical problem ending his rally while running fifth in stage three. Reigning Italian championship winner on this event Simone Campedelli was next of the front-running Italians to fall, retiring from third place when he ran out of spare tyres with two punctures in two consecutive afternoon stages.

This left Giandomenico Basso, twice a European Rally Champion in 2006 and 2009, as Lukyanuk’s main challenger in second place. In only his second rally aboard a ŠKODA Fabia R5 and with a brand new co-driver, he progressively pushed harder in every test, winning stage seven by 2.8s despite a 360 degree spin.

Fabian Kreim showed what could be achieved with a calm, restrained approach. Keen to cover every kilometre and build his confidence and pace, Kreim belied his young age with a measured drive to third overall and a secure lead in ERC Junior U28.

He was locked in a close battle all day long, swapping places with his podium rival Grzegorz Grzyb all day long in a tit-for-tat battle over tenths of a second. Despite battling hard with one another both ascended through the overall standings to third and fourth respectively, split by only 1.4s after Leg One.

Italian rallying legend Paolo Andreucci, who had earned the loudest cheer of all in Friday’s ACI Roma Arena superspecial, ran first on the road all day on his way to fifth place. It was a remarkable effort from Andreucci, who had fractured his lower vertebrae earlier this week in a testing crash which had sidelined his wife and regular co-driver Anna Andreussi.

Bruno Magalhães started Friday complaining his ‘soft’ car left him unable to push flat out, pointing out he had been lifting in corners which he had taken flat the year before. A new set of anti-roll bars at midday service made his Fabia come alive but it was all for naught, as an intermittent power issue cost him all progress. As his engine kept cutting out, his gap to Kreim, Grzyb and Andreucci ahead increased further, now in sixth place and 31.5s off a potential podium finish.

Those behind the top six were influenced greatly by a single stage, Pico-Greci’s 19.46 kilometres. As gravel and stones were dragged onto the asphalt roads, tyres took a beating, leading to several punctures for those fighting over points.

In Saturday morning’s pass there were warning signs of Pico-Greci’s rally-changing ability. Magalhães’ ARC Sport team-mate Aloísio Monteiro crashed out. while ERC Junior U28 competitor Rhys Yates and Italian driver Marco Pollara both sustained punctures.

Winding forward to Saturday afternoon re-run and the midfield order was shaken up massively. Campedelli, Ingram, Fredrik Åhlin, ACCR Czech Team’s Jan Černý, Albert von Thurn und Taxis, Cyprus Rally winner Simos Galatariotis, Łukasz Habaj and even Yates for a second time all sustained punctures.

Juuso Nordgren was one to narrowly avoid a larger stone which had caught out others, moving up to seventh overall with clean, consistent driving. Behind him a recovering Ingram finished Leg One in eighth after being as high as fourth before his puncture, CA1 Sport’s Åhlin in ninth and Orhan Avcioğlu in his Toksport WRT Fabia P10.

Qualifying Stage winner Gryazin’s comeback had been going well, surging back to tenth after his morning drama. It was an ultimately futile comeback, as a clutch problem in stage six evolved into complete gearbox failure on the start line of stage nine, Saturday’s final 2.46 kilometre blast through Pico.

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