ALULA - Mitchel van den Brink did good business in the first part of the marathon stage. The young Harskamper finished second and took a big bite off his gap to the numbers two and three in the standings.
Martin van den Brink also arrived unscathed at the bivouac where the drivers are taking care of the maintenance of the vehicles themselves. Tomorrow the second part will follow and the Eurol Rally Sport crews will be able to put their trucks back in the hands of the service crew.
From the bivouac in Alula, Martin van den Brink made it clear that the formations of Eurol Rally Sport seem to have “everything under control. ,,We drove conservatively and didn't experience much. The most important thing for today was to keep the truck in one piece to be able to continue tomorrow. We are now with Mitchel and his crew. He had a flat tire and we have one left so we are giving it to him. Now we will first do the maintenance on the trucks and then try to get some sleep to finish the marathon stage tomorrow.''
All day shifting places
Mitchel van den Brink and his co-pilots Moi Torrallardona and Jarno van de Pol had a fairly stable test. On the varied course it was almost all day long a case of alternating with Martin Macik and surprisingly Kees Koolen.
After 290 kilometers, Mitchel had a 3-minute lead on Kees Koolen and over 8 minutes on Macik. At the next measuring point, the roles were totally reversed again and Koolen had the fastest intermediate time. Mitchel was suddenly looking at a deficit of over 6 minutes there. The time loss was caused by a flat tire and searching for a waypoint. In the final part of the stage, Macik showed his class and took control again. Koolen had to pass and Mitchel stayed on the trail of the overall leader.
In the final section on the way to the marathon bivouac, Mitchel nibbled a few minutes off the gap and finished second at 3m38s. Koolen finished third at 7m45s. Vaidotas Žala had to accept a 21m54s loss today. The Lithuanian saw that his teammate at De Rooy had even more problems. The Czech, who won the stage yesterday and is second in the standings, lost 42m20s today. Loprais finished ninth and that was just behind Martin van den Brink.
The experienced driver from Eurol Rally Sport took no risks and sent the Iveco into the bivouac in eighth place after a difficult 415km test. In the battle for fifth place, Martin had to acknowledge his superiority to Martin Soltys. The Tatra driver was over 20 minutes faster and took over fifth place in the standings.
Everything is possible again
In the overall ranking, Mitchel lost a little time on leader Macik. The difference is now 1h16m56s. Van den Brink junior is still fourth, but saw the difference with the numbers two and three narrow considerably. After this fourth stage, anything is possible again and he is close to the number two, Aleš Loprais, to 31 minutes. Vaidotas Žala saw his lead on Mitchel shrink to over 20 minutes.
Starting tomorrow, Mitchel can step by step try to overtake the two Iveco drivers. In the second week it should become clear whether defending champion Martin Macik will drop out and thus breathe new life into the tension in the battle for victory in the trucks. We will know more tomorrow afternoon when the crews return to their teammates in the Hail bivouac after a 425-kilometer test. But before that happens, a route over rock-hard trails, soft plains and fast sections on stony ground must be completed.
Automatic translation of the Dutch version
Source: Eurol Rally Sport
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