Kopecký tops Ypres Rally shakedown

Jan Kopecký has stolen a march on his Intercontinental Rally Challenge rivals by going fastest during shakedown for the Geko Ypres Rally, which ran from 19:00-23:00hrs yesterday (Thursday).

Driving a factory-prepared Škoda Fabia S2000, Czech Kopecký posted a table-topping time of 2m44.80s on the 4.88-kilometre practice stage around the village of Nieuwkerke south of Ypres. His effort was almost five seconds faster than the best time recorded by Kris Meeke during shakedown for Ypres in 2009.

“We had no problems and worked on changing some small details with the car,” said Kopecký.

Freddy Loix, making his first appearance for Škoda Motorsport, was second quickest, one second down on his team-mate, in his identical facelift Fabia.

“I was quite impressed about the car and how easy it feels to drive,” said Loix, a five-time winner in Ypres. “We did a very good test, two days and had a very good feeling with the car so the shakedown was just fine-tuning.”

Meeke, last year’s winner, was third in his Peugeot UK 207 S2000 with Bruno Magalhães an encouraging fourth in his Peugeot Sport Portugal example.

IRC leader Juho Hänninen was fifth in the lead works Škoda with rising Belgian star Thierry Neuville sixth, despite a minor mishap when he nudged a chicane marker post on one of his runs, which left his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 with a damaged rear bumper.

Dutchman Kevin Abbring was the leading IRC 2WD Cup contender in his Clio R3.

The shakedown was held in warm and sunny conditions watched by more than 10,000 spectators, according to official estimates.

Overall times:
1 Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia S2000) 2m44.8s
2 Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000) 2m45.8s
3 Kris Meeke (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2m46.2s
4 Bruno Magalhães (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2m48.2s
5 Juho Hänninen (Škoda Fabia S2000) 2m48.3s
6 Thierry Neuville (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2m48.9s
7 Pieter Tsjoen (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2m49.8s
8 Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2m50.8s
9 Bernd Casier (Škoda Fabia S2000) 2m51.1s
10 Andreas Mikkelsen (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) 2m51.3s