Weekend rally news from overseas – July 25

Sander Parn will be a non-starter for this weekend’s Neste Rally Finland.  His Fiesta R5 has been taken over by Henning Solberg, whose WRC entry has been cancelled.  

Yazeed Al Rahji finished second on the cross country Silk Way Rally.Peugeot 208 T16 entrants Quentin Giordano and Jose Suarez have also withdrawn.  

There has been no decision yet whether Juha Salo will drive a new Evo or a normal Peugeot R5 in Neste Rally.  None of the associated Citroen DS3 R5 Evos are expected to be ready to compete in Finland.

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The French gravel championship Terre de l’Auxerrois, due this weekend, was cancelled.

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Great excitement at Rally Coppa Città di Lucca, a regional “ronde” rally in Tuscany, when Robert Kubica made a return to rallying. He was at the wheel of a Renault Clio S1600, which had been fitted with a modified gear selection system.  

Before he punctured on the final stage, Kubica was lying second behind a Peugeot 208 T16 R5 car, which was then eliminated by a road accident 800 metres from the podium!  

Kubica finally finished third behind two other Clio S1600s.  It was Kubica’s first rally in six months. He was co-driven by Maciej Szczepaniak.

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Hermann Neubauer (Fiesta WRC) won the Austrian championship Rallye Weiz, beating the Skoda R5 of Raimund Baumschlager and the Fiesta WRC of Gerwald Grossing.

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Tomas Ondrez won Slovakia’s Tatra Rally at the wheel of a Fabia WRC, finishing a half minute ahead of Pavel Valousek’s Fabia R5.

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Spot the Al Qassimis, three of which have entered in Finland!  Khalid (Citroen DS3 WRC) and Abdullah (Fiesta WRC) are half brothers - same mother. Mohammed (Mitsubishi Evo IX) is the son of Abdullah, on only his second season.

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Neste Rally Finland competitor Yazeed Al Rahji finished second on the cross country Silk Way Rally from Moscow to Beijing.  Sebastien Loeb was seventh.

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Finnish driver Tapio Laukkanen won his second round of the Kenya’s national championship this year when he beat Jassi Chatthe at the Wundanyi Voi Rally.
 
- Martin Holmes

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