Jan Kopecky finished at top in Sata Rallye Azores 2013 after extreme weather conditions
Posted by ERC - 27/04/13 06:00PM - 0 Comments - European Rally Championship - 




In the last third day of Sata Rallye Azores 2013 Jan Kopecky keeps the distance with Craig Breen all the time. Jan wins the first stage Graminhais 1 for the day with 2.6 seconds advantage to Breen. Kopecky explains: I think they should shorten the stage. We had heavy fog during the race, there is fog also now, we don't know where do we go. It's crazy.
The local Ricardo Moura is the fastest is SS 14 Tronqueira 1 with a distance of 21.33 km followed by Breen and Kopecky within 2 seconds. The fog in Azores continue in this stage. In the next two stages Jan Kopecky is the fastest man as continue to extend his overall lead to Breen to 20.8 seconds ahead the service break. Due too the bad weather Sao Bras / Vila Franca 2 stage was cut to 6.14 km.
After the service break in the next two stages Jan Kopecky extends his rally lead with another 6 seconds.
Breen: We need to be clever. I tried to push in the morning, but now we can't do anything stupid.
Kopecky: We are trying our best. It's the best way to not make any mistake. This stage was very tricky, but I'm happy with our speed.
Magalhaes: We have to get to the finish. We changed the suspension and now I see what setup we should use from the beginning of the rally.
In the last rally stage Tronqueira 2 21.33 km Kopecky finished with new stage win.
Kopecky: I'm very happy, because it's my first win on gravel. I have to thank to Skoda. We missed the corner where I crashed in 2010, I said OK, and in next corner we were heavily wide.
Breen: We came to the finish, we have the podium, second place is great.
Moura: Great, I want to thanks to all our team. We had only short time to prepare everything, but the team managed it. We still can improve, but we are happy to be here.
Kubica: Difficult weekend for us, especially today. It was tricky. We were lucky and unlucky, but it was big experience.
Final Results:
1. J. Kopecky (Skoda Fabia S2000) 2:26:32.2
2. C. Breen (Peugeot 207 S2000) +32.2
3. R. Moura (Skoda Fabia S2000) +58.8
4. B. Magalhaes (Peugeot 207 S2000) +2:37.6
5. J. Ansian (Peugeot 207 S2000) +3:27.4
6. R. Kubica (Citroen DS3 S2000) +9:19.1