But at the end of the day it was the 14-year-old Ford Focus WRC that was faster than the brand new Skoda Fabia R5. Vaclav Pech wins the rally!
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The Focus still is a faster car if properly driven, set and maintained (this one certainly is being run by very capable team). That's a simple fact.
Per Czech rules only WRC cars allowed in the championship are those which had Czech registration already in 2014. It means that Pech's only chance to defeat Kopecký was to get the only eligible faster car - Dohnal's Focus.
Fun fact - Pech won Bohemia only for the second time in his long and successful career. In the more distant past the event used to be dominated by Kresta and in last years by Kopecký (last year by Rovanperä).
You may have watched the coverage from Rally Video Novinky but some particularly nice shots are here:
Huttunen in a potato field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3j...=youtu.be&t=77
Pech total flat out: https://youtu.be/5jLAhW43YBo?t=74
Same place from outside: https://youtu.be/5jLAhW43YBo?t=421
Semerád's crashed car: https://youtu.be/IgPIlm4rDZ0?t=162
Pech's big moment: https://youtu.be/IgPIlm4rDZ0?t=253
Great video with another Huttunen's off (and many other offs and mistakes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elx7o_T6p68
Two spectacular offs of Matěna and Šimek here: https://youtu.be/dL37yKKVDDo?t=122
All in all I think that it was a great event. It looks like Huttunen may drive another events of the championship so the battle of the three may continue. Also great performance from Radström!
So René Dohnal and Robert Hordossy will be the drivers of the 208 Rally 4 at Rallysprint Pribram :confused:
Looking at this video, Vaclav Pech urgently need a fitness training (jogging and workout), because he looks totally exhausted after arrival into TC (at 02:40):
https://www.ewrc-results.com/video/3...nen-mimo-trat/
To be able to outpace other Czech drivers on day one at least, Huttunen and the latest Hyundai R5 must be damn quick!
Re: Pech, I would rather see him in a Polo or new Fiesta R5 so he is competing on a level playing field.
Great video from Bohemia (only modern event): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1-N...ture=emb_title
On Saturday the Rallysprint season started too. After a big battle 19-years old Petr Semerád (younger brother of Martin) claimed his first ever overall victory (in his second proper 4WD event). There's more to come for sure! With most of the very top MČR drivers not starting the event was long time dominated by Vojtěch Štajf before he crashed out on the penultimate stage (quite hard). Afterwards it was a question whether Martin Vlček can keep his thin lead over Petr Semerád which he gained in the morning (when Petr made some mistakes such as one very funny off). Among 2WD Jan Dohnal in ex-Simon Jean-Joseph's Clio S1600 defeated René Dohnal with the new Peugeot 208 Rally4 (before René's one mistake they were very close). The performance of the Rally4 Peugeot was definitely very good although there still some work to do especially with the rear axle on jumps as far as I can tell from the videos. By the way the two Dohnals are not related.
1. P. Semerád (Fabia R5 Evo) 38:07,3
2. Vlček (i20 R5) +1,8
3. Odložilík (Polo R5) +33,7
4. Bisaha (i20 R5) +1:02,6
5. Trněný (Fiesta R5) +1:24,7
6. Adolf (Fabia R5) +1:39,3
7. Tomek (Fabia R5) +1:57,5
8. Šimek (Fiesta R5) +1:59,6
9. J. Dohnal (Clio S1600) +2:17,1
10. R. Dohnal (208 Rally4) +2:45,2
Crash of Štajf: https://youtu.be/0XrAYdGYFfs?t=135
That lucky ridiculous off of Semerád: https://youtu.be/WniANeEunAQ?t=192