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WRC 2 in Spain: Clean sweep for Kopecky

Jan Kopecky claimed a clean sweep of WRC 2 speed test wins at RallyRACC Catalunya - Rally de España on saturday.

The Czech champion won all seven special stages in a Skoda Fabia R5, but it wasn't enough to dislodge rally-long leader Teemu Suninen, who led by 44.4sec with one day remaining.

Suninen built a 1min 17sec buffer on his favoured gravel roads yesterday in his Ford Fiesta, knowing Kopecký would have the upper hand when the event switched to asphalt today.

So it proved, but Suninen controlled his lead by finishing second on six of the seven tests and remains in a strong position with six stages, covering 74.26km, remaining.

"We lead by a good margin and the important thing is to stay focused until the finish," said the Finn. "This morning I was a bit cautious in places but I lead WRC 2 and that's the most important thing."

Benito Guerra was a distant third, almost three minutes further back in another Fabia. The Mexican shrugged off a bout of ‘flu to finish 47.7sec ahead of Juuso Nordgren, who survived a spin in a similar car.

Simone Tempestini held third throughout the day until he was penalised 60sec for checking into a control early.
That knocked the Romanian back to fifth, just 1.4sec behind Nordgren, with Poland's Lukasz Pieniazek rounding off the top six.

Japanese youngster Hiroki Arai did not restart today after a heavy crash yesterday.

Zdroj: wrc.com