Dutchman Kevin Abbring dominated day one of the European Rally Championship Ypres Rally.
Abbring finished Friday with six stage wins to his name to establish a commanding lead of 24.8s over the Skoda of Freddy Loix.
Loix, who left the road on his second run through Dikkebus, said he was much happier chasing someone for the lead as opposed to dominating the rally. Which he has done at Ypres in the past.
Abbring’s Peugeot team-mate Craig Breen had a bad first day in Ypres, which may see his title hopes dashed. The Irishman had a puncture on the opening stage caused by brake damage.
This set-back left Breen down in 13th after the morning session. He did improve in the afternoon to end the day 7th but still struggled with set-up issues which left him almost two minutes down on the leader.
Esapekka Lappi, the championship leader, is currently running third at his first Ypres rally ahead of Cedric Cherain, Sepp Wiegand and Hermen Kobus.
Kobus had been running 5th but crashed into a post by the side of the road after low-lying sun momentarily blinded the Dutchman.
Another notable casualty from day one was the Italian Luca Rossetti. He had been running second when he capitalised on Loix’s mistake.
However on the following stage Rossetti hit a rock and ended up in a ditch with a puncture, costing him four minutes.
Tomorrow, which consists of 13 stages, is the final day of rally Ypres. Come back to The Checkered Flag for a full round up.
