Day report: Nordgren leads Cyprus ERC thriller

In a drastic change of fortunes, Nordgren was able to take advantage of Cyprus’ tricky conditions catching out rivals to move into first position, a stark contrast to two weeks prior where he retired from EKO Acropolis Rally from multiple punctures.

Instead, Autotek Motorsport’s Nasser Al-Attiyah suffered a similar fate, picking up a puncture in both the first and second stages in Saturday afternoon’s loop, leaving him short on spares after only taking a single backup tyre when leaving service in Larnaca. Luckily he was able to survive on three wheels, staying in the rally and moving to fourth place.

Cypriot driver Simos Galatariotis is now second on his home event, only 4.6 seconds behind new leader Nordgren. SEAJETS-backed Bruno Magalhães inherited third place after Al-Attiyah’s troubles, 8.8s behind Nordgren. Al-Attiyah is now 48.4s behind rally leader Nordgren in fourth

Alexandros Tsouloftas had been set to inherit a podium position, but he stopped early in Saturday’s final stage, unable to continue further and dropping out of the points places entirely. Norbert Herczig now completes the top five overall in his absence, 1m09.9s behind Nordgren.

Leg One recap: Fallen ERC top guns allow locals to shine
Saturday morning on the Cyprus Rally began in familiar ERC fashion, with Alexey Lukyanuk leading the way from stage one. Five-time Cyprus Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah had been touted as the odds-on favourite to score a sixth victory but his pace was tempered by a pop-off valve issue, leaving him slightly down on power compared to Lukyanuk.

While Lukyanuk and Al-Attiyah duelled for dominance, Nordgren settled into a safe third position, taking his time to drive safe, clean lines and avoid another double puncture scenario which had ruined his podium chances in EKO Acropolis Rally two weeks prior.

A tight battle for fourth place quickly emerged between ERC regular and local specialists. Cypriots Simos Galatariotis and Alexandros Tsouloftas were early winners, running fourth and fifth before morning service despite a first stage puncture for Tsouloftas.

Just as a running order seemed to be settling down, Saturday afternoon blew the Cyprus Rally's lead battle wide open.

Coming through a fast section of tarmac road, a cracked rim aboard Lukyanuk’s Ford Fiesta R5 spun him out and into a barrier, wrecking his car and destroying his rally lead. Though both he and co-driver Alexey Arnautov climbed out without a scratch, their car was heavily damaged, forcing their retirement and leaving residual debris behind.

Al-Attiyah would inherit first place from Lukyanuk’s demise, though not without troubles of his own. A puncture 3 kilometres into the same test which had claimed Lukyanuk not only cost him time but also forced Al-Attiyah to deploy his only spare tyre.

Nordgren was unable to capitalise on Al-Attiyah’s puncture thanks to one of his own aboard his Wevers Sport Fabia, picked up while dodging Lukyanuk’s stranded Fiesta and running through its debris. This demoted him to third, 50.1s behind Al-Attiyah and also 2.0s behind Galatariotis.

SS5 held one last plot twist in Leg One’s lead battle, a second puncture in as many stages for Al-Attiyah leaving him out of spare tyres to deploy. He deliberately left his shredded tyre on his right rear corner for the leg-closing SS6, dropping over a minute to save his earlier delaminated tyre for the road section back to service.

Two successive stage wins for Nordgren after his puncture put him back in first place, 4.6s up on Galatariotis in second place.

“We had some really bad luck with what happened to Lukyanyk but I think we’ve learned something from Acropolis,” said Nordgren, referring to his earlier puncture picked up while avoiding Lukyanuk’s stopped car.

“It’s been quite rough today, we didn’t expect so many loose stones, but I think we’ve survived well.”

Bruno Magalhães had struggled to get on top of his Fabia’s set-up on Saturday morning, but was feeling more at home aboard his SEAJETS-backed machine after midday service in Larnaca. Combined with his trademark measured approach, Magalhães surged from sixth to third, his eyes firmly fixed on making up points on championship leader Lukyanyk.

“When I saw that Lukyanuk was out, I realised that I need to finish this day because I score points for this day,” said Magalhães.

“Of course now for tomorrow we try to recover some positions. We have improved the car a lot this afternoon. This morning I was not so happy. We are going to think about the stages for tomorrow because this rally is a big challenge for the set-up.”

Fighting talk from Magalhães came in stark contrast to second placed man Galatariotis, who was focused on securing points for his Cyprus national championship campaign.

“We are trying to finish for the Cyprus championship and score those points, so we took the foot off the [throttle] pedal.”

Tsouloftas had been set to inherit third place until a late stoppage in Saturday’s final stage caused him to retire altogether, allowing Magalhães into a podium place and Al-Attiyah to slot his limping Fiesta into fourth place behind him.

ERC regular Norbert Herczig demonstrated what could be achieved by a strict safety-first approach, dismissing any desire for a podium push to focus on improving step by step. He had dropped as low as ninth place on Saturday morning, but picked his way up to fifth position by day’s end with a clean, no-nonsense drive. He heads into Leg Two on Sunday with a 1m01.9s deficit to rally leader Nordgren.

Dávid Botka was another driver to turn in a quietly efficient performance, taking his Sysinfo Rallye Team Fabia to sixth place, 2m01.2s behind Nordgren. He holds a slim 4.0s advantage over fellow Fabia runner Orhan Avcioğlu in seventh, whose day was far from quiet.

He picked up a puncture through SS5 in an extraordinary fashion, heading off through a field and smashing through fences, picking up a puncture while finding his way back onto the stage.

“I think there’s going to be an angry farmer, I hope he doesn’t find me!” said Avcioğlu, before heading towards service in Larnaca, possibly to seek shelter.

An early tyre gamble on a mixed tarmac-gravel tread pattern didn’t pan out as ACCR Czech Team pilot Vojtéch Štajf had hoped, but still finished Leg One in eighth despite a puncture sustained after midday service.

Albert von Thurn und Taxis did well to avoid any major dramas to finish Leg One in ninth place, only 4.6s behind Štajf aboard his BRR Baumschlager Rallye & Racing Team-prepared Fabia.

ERC2 category leader Panikos Polykarpou demonstrated why he finished third overall on the Cyprus Rally last year, heading his class whilst also holding P10 overall.

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