The leading teams have already completed the qualifying stage of Rally Poland, the first round of the European Rally Championship. The 3.26-kilometer-long special did not leave any great differences. In case there were doubts, everything is open for the next few days.
Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov set the best time with the Citroën C3 Rally2 just brought in by their Saintéloc team. The Russians were eight tenths ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Floene, second, and also serious candidates for victory with the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo.
Miko Marczyk and Szymon Gospodarczyk are playing at home, and they have also made it clear on Friday morning that they will go all out. The Poles were only one second behind the best time, improving by six tenths to the one set by Nil Solans and Marc Martí.
The Spanish, despite having problems with the pop-off of their Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo, finished fourth, 1.7 seconds behind the current European Champions. Everything will be solved to start the rally. Irishmen Callum Devine and James Fulton finished fifth in the Ford Fiesta Rally2.
From there, and very close to the podium positions in qualifying, we have several riders. Norbert Herczig, a classic of ERC, this year with Skoda. The German Fabian Kreim, who has classified seventh, and first among the Volkswagens. Yoann Bonato, asphalt specialist, but very fast with the Citroën. Grégoire Munster will be another rivals to watch, with a full season of ERC experience with Hyundai.
Efrén Llarena and Sara Fernández finished 6.7 seconds behind Lukyanuk and Arnautov. They are aware that it will cost them, since it is a very new rally for them, even more so with the Skoda. “Surely we are not in the rhythm, everything is new now, but we will try to improve” declared Llarena at the finish line.
Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov reached the finish line with several minutes lost after suffering from problems with the radiator, it seems that by a small touch. The pair had set the best time in the shakedown and, if nothing goes wrong, they will fight for the victory without a doubt.
This is how things have ended. Click here to see the complete classification.
| 1 | 1 |  | Lukyanuk Alexey / Arnautov Alexey Citroën C3 Rally2 | RC2 1 | 00:01:47.425 | 00:01:47.425 | 00:00:00.000 00:00:00.000 |
| 2 | 3 | | Mikkelsen A. / Fløene Ola Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | RC2 2 | 00:01:48.324 | 00:01:48.324 | 00:00:00.899 00:00:00.899 |
| 3 | 11 | | Marczyk Miko / Gospodarczyk S. Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | RC2 3 | 00:01:48.473 | 00:01:48.473 | 00:00:01.048 00:00:00.149 |
| 4 | 8 | | Solans Nil / Martí Marc Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | RC2 4 | 00:01:49.152 | 00:01:49.152 | 00:00:01.727 00:00:00.679 |
| 5 | 19 | | Devine Callum / Fulton James Ford Fiesta R5 MkII | RC2 5 | 00:01:49.474 | 00:01:49.474 | 00:00:02.049 00:00:00.322 |
