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finished second on the cross country Silk Way Rally.Peugeot 208 T16 entrants Quentin Giordano and Jose Suarez have also withdrawn.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