Adrien Fourmaux: “Today’s stages were even more slippery and dirtier than yesterday’s stages. I slow down a bit after Stéphane’s retirement. I am adjusting my rhythm to Chris Ingram’s times.”
Chris Ingram: “It would be an honour to be on the podium with Freddy Loix in Ypres. The first loop this morning was a “high speed reconnaissance”. There is certainly more to come this afternoon, but getting to Fourmaux will be difficult …”
Freddy Loix: “The Skoda is very efficient and we started a bit faster this morning than yesterday. Finishing as first Belgian, that would be great…”
Niels Reynvoet: “I expect that there will be some retirements due to the heat. It’s going fine. I have to try to keep up this pace and stay clear.”
Maxime Potty: “It didn’t go well this morning. The times were worse than expected and I thought the front didn’t have the feeling. But, now that Cédric Cherain also made a mistake, our duel has started again with barely 3″ difference.”
Bjorn Syx: “Charles Munster sat on my bumper in Hollebeke, but we had a red flag signal. Apparently, he didn’t. He tried to overtake us and ended up just pushing us at the back…”
Bernd Casier: “We were held up again in Hollebeke by James Williams’ off. We still had a green signal at the time. I reported “road blocked”, which gave everyone a red flag, but when they freed the Ford from Williams, suddenly the Englishman started attacking again. Oh well, they will correct our time. Other than that we are having fun, although Pieter thinks I should play less with the handbrake!”
James Williams: “We went off Hollebeke in a fast corner because the power steering suddenly failed in the corner. I had no chance and we slid into a ditch. We lost more than three minutes, but the most important thing is that we still be there.”
BRC Historic and BRC Juniors
In Historic, Paul Lietaer continues to impress with his Opel Ascona 400. Lietaer sits in a very good 22nd place overall, ahead of Pieter-Jan Maeyaert in his BMW M3 E30.
“It’s nice that we’re beating some Rally2 drivers. And it’s not over yet. I’ve got a few more in my sights,” laughs Paul.
Jonas Dewilde is still leader in the Junior standings. Closest pursuer Tom Heindrichs lost a few minutes due to a slide that got him stuck in the mud. As a result, Maxime Decock has moved up to second place.
In the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup, Julian Wagner is still in command, but only 7.9 seconds ahead of Marijan Griebel.
