Photo: Krists Andersons
The “Louna-Eesti” rally was held in Estonia with intense battles, which was a preparatory rally for several crews before the Estonian WRC rally.
After two races in the morning, the leader was Ots Tanaks, who lost 5.9 seconds to Kalle Rovanpera, but less than nine seconds behind Elfin Evans. Tanaks was also the fastest in the next two special stages, who increased the lead over Rovanper to 7.5 seconds. As the riders admitted after the stages, the stages are very, very fast.
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There was a fierce battle in the EMV2 class, where at that time Nikolai Grjazins was 0.1 second ahead of the Finnish Erik Pietarinen, 1.4 seconds behind another Finn Jari Hutunen, but Ole-Christian Weiby lost 1.6 seconds. Unfortunately, in the first stage of the fight for victory, Theme Suninen withdrew, who crossed the car wheel. The Finn was still not as fast as his competitors.
Tanak was the fastest in the fifth stage, but in the sixth stage Rovanpera showed the fastest time for the first time, who continued to follow Tanak closely, losing 9.5 seconds at that time. Unfortunately, in the fifth stage suffered a serious accident Evans, who threw several rolls, destroying his car. Ojie rose to third place at that time, losing 22.7 seconds to Tanak.
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Pietarinen took the lead in the fifth stage of the EMV2 class, but in the sixth stage Grjazins was very fast, ahead of his closest follower in his class by 4.1 seconds, which allowed him to overtake Hutunen by 4.9 seconds before the last two stages, while Pietarinen was 5.6 seconds behind. seconds.
Tanaks was again the fastest in the penultimate stage, overtaking Rovanper by 10.7 seconds before the final stage. Nothing changed in the final stage and Tanaks celebrated the victory. The second remained Rovanpera, and the third – Ozie.
In the EMV2 class, the fastest in the penultimate stage was Hutunen, who lost to Grjazin only 1.1 seconds before the final stage. In the final stage, Hutunen overtook Griazin and won the class victory. Peterine was third.
In the EMV3 class, the victory was celebrated by the Estonian Robert Virves, while the fast Finn Sami Pajari lost five minutes in the seventh stage (the next two and a half), which gave the fourth place in the finish. Arnis Alksnis was fifth, with the class leader losing less than nine minutes.
In the final stage of the EMV4 class, in which 15 riders started, Edgars Balodis lost the third place, giving way to the Polish rider Kemp (+1.3). The victory was won by Ranno Bundsens. Madars Dīriņš won the third place in EMV6 class.
Rally results:
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