Reliability helped Azores resident driver, Ricardo Moura, win the Azores Rally, fourth round of the 2016 FIA European Rally Championship, an event in which the lead changed six times in 16 stages.
Moura was the first local driver to win the event since 1971. Ford Fiesta R5 cars took the top three places.
For most of the event the lead was fought out between the ERC champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland, who had a broken driveshaft three stages from the end, and the Russian Alexey Lukyanuk, who was slowed on the final morning by a loose turbo pipe, a problem he had also suffered on the previous ERC round.
An early challenger was the round three (Acropolis Rally) winner Ralfs Sirmacis from Latvia, who retired on the final day when lying third, with broken steering.
Best non-Fiesta driver was the Hungarian David Botka’s Citroen DS3 R5, which snatched fourth place when another Fiesta driver, Jaroslav Orsak from Czech Republic, was delayed on a road section before the final stage changing a flat tyre.
The lead for the ERC Junior also saw six changes in the lead. The eventual winner was the Portuguese driver, Diogo Gago, who eventually pulled away from the Opel drivers Chris Ingram (who was delayed with a puncture) and his teammate, Marijan Griebel, who went off the road. In third place was Steve Røkland in a Fiesta. Ingam now leads the Junior driver series.
Polish driver Wojciech Chuchala scored his fourth successive victory in the ERC2 category in the Polish importer’s Subaru.
The overall championship is led by Kajetanowicz with 92 points, ahead of Lukyanuk’s 77 points. The championship now returns to mainland Europe for the next round, the Ypres Rally in Belgium at the end of June.
Final results:
1. Ricardo Moura/António Costa, Ford Fiesta R5, 2h42m23.5s
2. Alexey Lukyanuk/Alexey Arnautov, Ford Fiesta R5, +26.8s
3. Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Jarosław Baran, Ford Fiesta R5, +3m23.0s
4. Dávid Botka/Péter Szeles, Citroën DS3 R5, +5m28.5s
5. Jaroslav Orsák/David Šmeidler, Ford Fiesta R5, +5m34.1s
6. Pedro Meireles/Mário Castro, Škoda Fabia R5, +5m44.1s
7. Luís Rego/Carlos Magalhães, Ford Fiesta R5, +5m46.2s
8. José Pedro Fontes/Inês Ponte, Citroën DS3 R5, +6m17.9s
9. Ricardo Teodósio/José Teixeira, Ford Fiesta R5, +7m01.2s
10. Antonín Tlusťák /Ladislav Kučera, Škoda Fabia R5, +7m30.7s