Golden Stage Rally start list revealed

Recently-crowned IRC 2WD Cup champion Jean-Michel Raoux will start first on the road on the Cyprus Golden Stage Rally, which will be shown live on Eurosport and carries a prize fund of 150,000.

Raoux, who drives a 100% Sport-prepared Renault Clio R3 alongside co-driver Laurent Magat, will be followed through the 19.43-kilometre mixed-surface test, the Golden Stage, by leading Cypriot driver Charalambos Timotheou in a Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

Hungarian Laszlo Vizin goes third in his Subaru Impreza with Nicos Thomas fourth on the road in his Lancer and determined to make up for the disappointment of his retirement on the final day of the Cyprus Rally.

Doros Loucaides will run fifth on the road in his Petrolina-backed Peugeot 207 Super 2000 with Patrik Sandell sixth and on a high following his podium finish on the Cyprus Rally in his ŠKODA Sweden Fabia.

Estonian teenager Karl Kruuda is seventh on the road in his ME3 Rally Team Fabia with Thierry Neuville eighth and one of the favourites for victory at the wheel of his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 S2000.

Finn Juho Hänninen, last year’s IRC champion, is ninth on the road followed by his ŠKODA Motorsport team-mate and this year’s IRC runner-up Jan Kopecký from Czech Republic.

The first run of the Cyprus Golden Stage Rally gets underway at 12:10hrs local time.