Two victories in two starts, the new Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 has started strongly but then there have also been national rallies in the autumn, albeit with international opposition.
This weekend was the French Rallye National Hivernal du Dévoluy with just under 130 kilometers of special stages that applied where the Russian Nikolay Gryazin had to take the wheel in the new Skoda in preparation for the Rallye Monte-Carlo. The weather with roads that offered everything from dry asphalt to snow and ice on the stages.
A stage win for Gryazin in icy conditions lead to a overall victory by a wide margin of 4:06 minutes ahead of Jonathan Hirschi in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 and further down with 1:28 minute was Damien Oberti in the Citroen C3 Rally2.
Pierre-Louis Loubet went fastest on stage two and into the lead on Saturday, but was then immediately overtaken by Gryazin, who after Saturday’s four stages was a minute ahead. Loubet hung in for half of Saturday and shadowed Gryazin in the stages but had to retire with technical problems after three stages.
