Season
Jan Kopecký ninth following Friday’s leg
Following the unsuccessful performance by the Jan Kopecký-Filip Schovánek in Rally Catalunya, the Czech Rally Team Kopecká has moved from Spain to France, where the world championship continues with the tarmac Tour de Corse. The French race is typical for its turns characters and many times also significant elevation.
During the shakedown on Thursday Jan Kopecký fine tuned the setup of the second Škoda Fabia WRC car that the Czech Rally Team Kopecký has at its disposal. During the four runs the team did not detect any troubles with the car and Jan Kopecký was happy with the car's setup.
The initial special stage of Friday's leg and even the Rally Corsica were cancelled, because sufficient spectator safety was not provided. Battle for seconds started with the second special stage, where Jan Kopecký ran an eleventh best time. Ninth best time in the third special stage has moved him in the running order to a ninth position.
In the initial special stage of today's second section an insert in Jan's tire cracked and the car started to noticeably vibrate. Another complication was brought on by unavailability of tires with a harder compound for the driver of Czech Rally Team Kopecký. Softer compound tires kept overheating and wearing down very rapidly especially during Friday's longest special stage. In spite of that the Jan Kopecký-Filip Schovánek crew has moved back to ninth place at the end of Friday's leg.
"I am fully satisfied with today's performance. Crew has gone through today's leg without any errors and the running ninth place is a very solid starting position for the remaining two legs.
During Rally Corsica the engine torque and especially the characteristics of its process is very distinctive. When evaluating our crew we have to take into consideration the development, which the aggregates of newly homologized cars underwent.
Same as in the previous two races our car experienced a cracked tire insert with no apparent driver error. Understandably such an experience effects the time achieved in the special stage and does not put to ease the mind of the crew, nor mine," said the team manager Josef Kopecký.
"I started onto today's leg knowing that I cannot repeat Friday's leg of Rally Catalunya. Even with that in mind we are in a position just behind point position.
No way is Rally Corsica a rhythmical race and the constantly repeating sharp turns are in addition often in a relatively significant climbs. The more modern cars hold an advantage of course.
On the last special stage we felt the lack of hard compound tires, because our tires were dramatically overheating due to the heated tarmac. Unfortunately even for the final two legs we do not have harder compounds available to us at this time," added Jan Kopecký.
Running order in Rally Corsica:
1. LOEB S. / ELENA D. Citroën C4 WRC
2. GRÖNHOLM M. / RAUTIAINEN T. Ford Focus RS WRC 07 +0:04.8
3. SORDO D. / MARTI M. Citroën C4 WRC +0:18.5
4. DUVAL F. / PIVATO P. Citroën Xsara WRC +0:57.8
5. SOLBERG P. / MILLS P. Subaru Impreza WRC 2007 +1:03.1
6. LATVALA J.-M. / ANTTILA M. Ford Focus RS WRC 06 +1:06.4
9. KOPECKÝ JAN / SCHOVÁNEK FILIP ŠKODA Fabia WRC +2:47.4
