Russian drivers Alexey Lukyanuk (Ford) and Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda) took the top two places in Canarias, the second round of the 2018 European Rally Championship, with Lukyanuk winning his second successive ERC event and his second successive victory on this event. Second through fifth places were taken by Under 28 championship drivers, while the Under 27 category was won by Diogo Gago’s Peugeot R2. Lukyanuk led the rally from start to finish, except after the second stage when drying roads enabled the Porsche of Enrique Cruz to go in front. There was a close battle in the Under 27 category between Gago and the Opel Adam R2 of Martins Sesks, but after the first stage on Day 2 the Spanish Peugeot driver Efren Llarena was 0.9 seconds behind the leader Gago, but immediately afterwards he went off the road. = = = = The opening round of this year’s TER rally series was the Telekom Sport Transivania Rally based at Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Winner was the 2017 TER Champion Giandomenico Basso driving a Skoda Fabia R5 for the fist time. Romanian resident Simone Tempestini was second in a Citroen DS3 R5. = = = = Winner of the 102nd Targa Florio in Sicily, one of the world’s longest running motorsporting events, now an Italian championship rally, was the Hyundai i20 R5 of Andrea Nucita, beating Paulo Andreucci’s Peugeot and Umberto Scandola’s Skoda Fabia R5. = = = = Tomas Weng, whose company Mpart constructs the Mitsubishi Mirage lookalike R5 rally cars, has launched his latest venture. This is to be the “Mirage R5e”, an all electric rally car version, which will feature two motors, one for the front and one for the rear. = = = = The FIA Court of Appeal (May 4) duly heard the claim of Sebastien Ogier concerning his 10 second penalty in Mexico, which cost him supplemental Power Stage championship points, and announced their verdict would be issued in one to two weeks. = = = = Popular Michelin’s rally tyre manager, Jacques Morelli, has retired from his company after 40 years’ service. He headed Michelin’s WRC control tyre work when this started in 2011. He is succeeded by Arnaud Remy. = = = = Superstars go to the Baltic. Following Hyundai Motorsport’s announcement that Hayden Paddon would compete on the Shell Helix Rally Estonia (July 13-15) comes news that Citroen WRC driver, Craig Breen, is also to compete on that event. = = = = Gaurav Gill has still not announced which make of R5 car he will drive in his MRF funded World Rally Championship campaign, and he defied expectations by not appearing on the entry list for the Rally of Portugal. Meanwhile, back in India he won the national championship South India Rally based at MRF’s home town Chennai. He has recently performed promotional work with Ford. = = = = Dominik Dinkel won the Rund um die Sulinger Bärenklaue 2018, second DRM championship round, ahead of fellow Skoda Fabia R5 driver Chrstian Reidemann.

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