* Local drivers finish in top ten *
A majestic weekend of rallying came to an end on Sunday as Yazeed Al Rajhi rocked the island with a commanding win in the CNP Insurance Cyprus Rally 2014. In what was a one-of-a-kind event, two sanctioned FIA rounds ran side by side with the 9th round of the ERC and the 5th round of the MERC both taking place on the same weekend.
Al Rajhi began his run to the top spot early on Friday in the CNP Super Special Stage in the streets of Nicosia. The Saudi, with Michael Orr by his side, battled Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jaroslaw Baran of Poland throughout the first day. The Pole won three of the Special Stages on Saturday as Al Rajhi won another. The first stage of Leg 1 was won by Khalid Al Qassimi who fought Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari for the first spot in the Middle-East Rallying Championship. Nine-time MERC champion and three-time Cyprus Rally winner Nasser Al Attiyah could not get his rally going on Leg 1 as his Ford Fiesta had engine ECU problems forcing him to retire without considering the possibility of returning under Rally 2 regulations. The first day ended with Kajto leading Al Rajhi by a mere 3.8 seconds. Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari was third overall with his Ford Fiesta while the Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi finished fourth after Leg 1. In fifth place overall was the Portuguese crew of Bruno and Carlos Maghalaes and their Peugeot 208 T16. Another Peugeot was just behind in sixth however Craig Breen and Martin Scott had a heap of trouble with an overheating engine that refuse to run in “stage mode” throughout the day.
Christos Demosthenous and Pambos Laos finished the first day and led the Cypriot crews in seventh with two other local crews following him. They were Stavros Antoniou/Chips Junior and Petros Panteli/Christos Alexandrou. Rounding up the top ten at the end of Saturday was Vitaliy Puskhar and Ivan Mishyn of Ukraine with their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
The second day of the rally 2014 was a one-man show as Yazeed Al Rajhi drove his Ford Fiesta flawlessly and won 4 of the six special stages on his way to a brilliant victory. Second on the ERC podium was Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jaroslaw Baran while third ERC finishers were Bruno and Carlos Maghalaes. The MERC victory went to Abdul Aziz Al-Kuwari with Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi getting second honors. He is now closer to Nasser Al Attiyah in the MERC standings by 6 points in what is bound to be a great fight to the end of the season. Third in the MERC was Abdulla Al Kuwari with Nicola Arena by his side in their Ford Fiesta.
Cypriot lockout!
The ERC Production category was an all-Cypriot affair. First amongs the Cypriots, sixth overall, and winner of the Production category was Christos Demosthenous and his co-driver Pambos Laos. Following them in second of the ERC Production and seventh overall were Stavros Antoniou and Chips Junior with Petros Panteli and George Alexandrou completing this great local showing in the ERC Production while also finishing the rally in eighth overall.
Rounding up the top ten were Vitaliy Puskhar/Ivan Mishyn in ninth and Antonin Tlustak/Jan Skaloud with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and a Skoda Fabia respectively. Zoltan Bessenyey and Yuliana Nyirfas won the 2-wheel drive category with their Honda Civic Type-R R3.
Final Results
1 Yazeed Al Rajhi – Michael Orr (Ford Fiesta RRC) 3:03:44.4
2 Kajetan Kajetanowicz – Jaroslaw Baran (Ford Fiesta R5) 3:04:33.3 +48.9
3 Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari – Duffy Gilian (Ford Fiesta) 3:05:14.9 +1:30.5
4 Khalid Al Qassimi – Chris Patterson (Citroen DS3 RRC) 3:05:50.1 +2:05.7
5 Bruno Magalhaes – Carlos Magalhaes (Peugeot 208 T16) 3:07:07.7 +3:23.3
6 Christos Demosthenous – Pambos Laos (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) 3:11:28.4 +7:44.0
7 Stavros Antoniou – «Chips Junior» (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) 3:13:27.0 +9:42.6
8 Petros Panteli – Giorgos Alexandrou (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 3:15:40.5 +11:56.1
9 Vitaliy Puskhar – Ivan Mishyn (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 3:16:22.2 +12:37.8
10 Antonin Tlustak – Jan Skaloud (Skoda Fabia S2000) 3:19:10.4 +15:26.0
11 Kyriacos Kyriacou – Christos Aristeidou (Subaru Impreza) 3:20:29.4 +16:45.0
12 D.Papasavas – H.Christophorou (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 3:20:41.1 +16:56.7
13 Laszlo Vizin – Gabor Zsiros (Peugeot 207 S2000) 3:21:46.4 +18:02.0
14 Kostas Laos – Kyriacos Damianou (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) 3:27:10.1 +23:25.7
15 Martin Hudec – Petr Picka (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) 3:28:08.5 +24:24.1
