Local hero Loix leads overnight in Ypres

Freddy Loix is on course for his sixth Geko Ypres Rally victory after completing Friday’s opening leg with a lead of 5.8 seconds over last year’s winner Kris Meeke.

But there will be no chance of a sixth consecutive podium finish for Intercontinental Rally Challenge leader Juho Hänninen after the works Skoda Motorsport driver slid into a ditch on the day’s fourth stage and got stuck, retiring from the event in the process.

Hänninen’s exit has turned the race for the IRC title on its head with Peugeot UK’s Meeke and works Skoda team-mate Jan Kopecký poised to capitalise in second and third places respectively. However, neither driver has been able to check Loix’s impressive progress on his first appearance in the IRC this season.

Loix, cheered on by thousands of enthusiastic spectators, won four of today’s six sun-baked stages on his first outing with the factory Škoda squad, which is running its facelift Fabia for the first time in Belgium. According to the 39-year-old, the car’s wider track has enhanced its stability in fast corners, which he said has given him a “perfect feeling” on the technically demanding asphalt stages.

Meeke was full of praise for Loix at the end of Friday’s leg, conceding that he couldn’t have gone any faster in his Kronos Racing-run 207. Meeke’s co-driver Paul Nagle suggested running number one on the road had proved a slight disadvantage, particularly on the third Mesen-Sauvegarde stage when they ran first over a short gravel section and lost the lead to Loix, who was running nine places further back. Meeke also reported struggling to get on the throttle exiting junctions on the second pass due to the amount of gravel that had been pulled onto the road.

Jan Kopecký is third overnight in his factory Fabia but suggested he could have been closer to the pace had he not opted for a soft compound tyre for the second loop of stages. With ambient temperatures still high heading into the evening’s stages, the rubber gradually lost optimum performance and proved a minor hindrance for the Czech ace.

Rising Belgian star Thierry Neuville is an impressive fourth overall in his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 with Pieter Tsjoen fifth and Bernd Casier sixth. Andreas Mikkelsen, a puncture victim on stage two, is seventh in the lead M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 with local legend Patrick Snijers in the final points-paying position in eighth.

Bruno Magalhães is up to ninth on his first appearance in Ypres at the wheel of his Peugeot Sport Portugal 207. Jasper van den Heuvel is the highest-placed driver in a conventional Group N machine in tenth place in his Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer.

Friday’s opening stage proved troublesome for several crews including Toshi Arai and Stéphane Sarrazin. Sarrazin failed to complete the run after a puncture caused him to slide off into a ditch on a right-hand bend five kilometres into the test, where his Peugeot 207 became stranded. Arai spun his Subaru Impreza on a square left junction and, in his efforts to get pointed in the right direction, he inadvertently slid into a ditch but fortunately managed to regain the road, albeit with a delay of almost 10 minutes.

Proton’s return to the IRC ended in disappointment when the factory cars of Australian Chris Atkinson and Scot Alister McRae and the semi-works Satria of young Briton Tom Cave all stopped with engine failures on stage four. None of the trio will restart on Saturday.

Young Dutch driver Kevin Abbring tops the IRC 2WD Cup standings in his Clio R3 from Corsican Pierre Campana, who overcame a puncture on stage two. Belgian Kris Princen had led the division only to retire with a broken alternator on stage five.

Saturday’s leg is almost double the distance of Friday with crews tackling 191.96 competitive kilometres over 13 special stages. The opening stage gets underway at 11:13hrs local time with the first car due to reach the finish in Ypres at 22:30hrs.

Freddy Loix (Belgium), Skoda Fabia S2000, first overall: "It’s a little bit of a surprise for me to be straight away fighting at the front but I have a very good feeling with my car from the pre-event test and I know these stages well. It’s much too early to think about winning but I have to say we are on the limit."

Kris Meeke (United Kingdom), Peugeot 207 S2000, second overall: "Freddy took quite a bit of time out of me and I couldn’t do any more. If he keeps at that pace it’s going to be difficult to catch him but it’s never over until it’s over. I had nigh on a perfect stage [stage six] and couldn’t find another tenth so we’ll take what we have."

Jan Kopecky (Czech Republic), Skoda Fabia S2000, third overall: "It has been a tricky rally and it is a shame for Juho. We will try to come back for sure but so far it has not been easy. We had a big moment on the first stage when I went a bit off the road and I was quite cautious after that."

Overall positions after SS6