Russians won the second ERC round

Today the Russians won the second European Rally Championship round – Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov secured a victory in the absolute standings of Rally Islas Canarias.

Russians won the second ERC round

On the Spanish rally final day Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov (Ford Fiesta R5) drove with an excellent pace – they won four stages from six, extended their advantage to almost a minute (more precisely, up to 57.2 seconds) and claimed a victory at the Rally Islas Canarias for the second time in a row! This success allowed the St. Petersburg duo to rise immediately to the second place in the ERC overall standings and to reduce the gap from the leading Portuguese Bruno Magalhaes (the gap between them was reduced from 31 to 17 points).

The second crew of the Russian Performance Motorsport team finished the race in the second position in the ERC2 (production) category. Experiencing problems with the gearbox at the first section, Sergei Remennik and Mark Rozin still managed not to lose time and pace. The troubles with the box could not be resolved at the afternoon service, but the lack of rear and the fifth gears did not prevent the crew in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X from finishing on podium and also winning special stages, narrowing the gap from Erdi Tibor to 30 seconds.

Sergei Remennik, “We started to feel asphalt better, won all the special stages of the second day, except for the first morning one. We will get maximum points in the class for the second day and for the second place by the race results.
I can say I really liked the asphalt rally. Especially at the end when we drove so fast! In spite of the fact that we did not have the rear and the fifth gears, it turned out well. It seems I began to feel something! Asphalt is not as scary as it was thought before the race start”.

Russians won the second ERC round
Now there is another almost monthly break in the European Rally Championships, but a very intensive program is scheduled for June – within two weeks there will be two races, the famous Greek Acropolis Rally (2-4 June) and Cyprus Rally (16-18 June). Now Portuguese Bruno Magalhaes leads the overall ERC standings with 63 points (the first so successful start in his European career), followed by Alexey Lukyanuk (46 points) and Kajetan Kejanowicz (35 points).

Russians won the second ERC round