Among the cars Károly Fazekas, among the bikes Italian Andrea Brunod and among the quads Hungarian Mátyás Somfai were fastest at the Superspecial of Aqua-Palace Cup, first round of the UEM European Championship for Bikes and Quads of the Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship in Hungarian spa town of Hajdúszoboszló.
Among the cars, defending Hungarian champion Károly Fazekas (BMW) was the fastest in front of his big rivals, Erik Korda (Nissan) and Balázs Szalay (Opel). Fazekas and Szalay were quite content with this result while Korda wasn’t too happy with the 10 second gap behind Fazekas on the 15 km long Superspecial. “We thought that with the new rules on air restrictors we would be closer to the cars with huge engines, but after today’s stage it doesn’t seem like that,” said a disappointed Korda in the service park. The tracks of Aqua-Palace Cup are famous for being very fast – as long as the weather is dry. But if the rain arrives tomorrow (as forecasted) we are in for an exciting battle of tactics…
Among bikes, Andrea Brunod (ITA, Honda) clocked the fastest time in front of the two Hungarian riders, Lajos “Laller” Horváth (HUN, KTM) and Richárd Hodola (HUN, Yamaha). Among quads Mátyás Somfai (HUN, EATV) finished first on the 15 km long Superspecial, but he was only one tiny second faster than his compatriot, last year’s runner-up in European Championship, Zoltán Hangodi. Third in the European Championship classification was Tomas Kubiena (CZE, Suzuki).
Tomorrow the rally continues with six specials, the finish will be on Sunday afternoon after there more specials.
