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Sirmacis leads ERC Acropolis Rally after first morning in R5 car

Ralfs Sirmacis has made a stunning start to his first FIA European Rally Championship start following his step up from ERC Junior, leading the legendary SEAJETS Acropolis Rally by the best part of half a minute.

Sirmacis, the 21-year-old Latvian who was runner-up in ERC Junior last season and has stepped up to a ŠKODA Fabia R5, led throughout a dramatic morning.

He won SS1, 4.4 seconds ahead of Alexey Lukyanuk, as defending ERC champion, points leader and last year's Acropolis winner Kajetan Kajetanowicz rolled and lost 14 minutes. He then extended his lead to 26s over Lukyanuk when the Russian suffered a puncture on SS2.

Lukyanuk won SS3 with an 8.8s margin over Sirmacis, but lost that and a bit more to a 10s penalty for a jump start, leaving the gap between the pair at 27.2s.

Lambros Athanassoulas and Jaromír Tarabus were handed identical penalties, leaving them 41.8 and 52.2s behind respectively in third and fourth. While Raul Jeets and Federico Della Casa occupied top-six places throughout the morning loop, Antonín Tlusťák fell from seventh to ninth with a puncture on SS3, slipping behind Jarosław Kołtun and ERC2 leader Wojciech Chuchała.

Another ERC2 contender Péter Ranga is 10th, five seconds ahead of last year's ERC2 champion Dávid Botka who is recovering after suffering more mechanical problems in his Citroën DS3 R5 on SS1.

Despite driving a battered and bruised LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5, Kajetanowicz won SS2 and was just 0.6s slower than Lukyanuk on SS3.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com