After completing eight out of the twelve special stages of the East Belgian Rally, which is the 6th round of the Kroon-Oil Belgian Rally Championship, the competition is very close. With one loop of 4 special stages left to drive, the difference between the leader Maxime Potty and the second-place Cédric Cherain is less than a second, specifically 9 tenths of a second.
They have each secured 4 fastest times, setting the stage for an extremely exciting final. Following the stage in Amel and three consecutive fastest times, Maxime Potty appeared to have created a small gap.
However, in St-Vith, Cédric Cherain responded with a top time, 6.6 seconds faster than Maxime Potty. This briefly gave Cédric the lead, but after SS 8, Maxime Potty is once again leading the rankings.
“We will continue to drive at our rhythm, as we have been doing the entire race, and then we will see. The stages are very muddy, so the choice to stay on rain tires was the right one,” said the rally leader.
“I really don’t know where he made that 8-second difference during the previous passage. Now we are driving almost the same time, 1.2 seconds apart, which seems logical to me,” said Cédric Cherain.
In any case, the two title candidates are performing well compared to Niels Reynvoet, the championship leader, who is trailing by 28 seconds.
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“You know, there are a few stages where I don’t have a good feeling, such as the Burg-Reuland stage, where we have little grip. I can’t keep up with the pace of Cédric and Maxime on this course, but we are on track to profit from the slightest mistake,” mentioned Jos Verstappen, who had some brake problems on this loop and admitted that his choice of the soft Michelin slicks was not the best.
His gamble saw his deficit almost double on this loop to 53.9 seconds. Behind the four leading Belgian rally drivers, two foreigners are performing well in East Belgium.
The Pole Jaroslav Koltun confirms his strong performance from last year with a provisional fifth place, ahead of two-time Luxembourg champion Steve Fernandes. These are impressive performances considering that they are both driving without ushers on this treacherous course.
Nicolas Stampaert has moved up to seventh place, 6.3 seconds ahead of Thibaud Mazuin, who in turn has a 12.4-second lead over Fred Miclotte. Everything remains possible between them as well. In the Junior BRC and in the Stellantis Cup, Tom Heindrichs controls the race in front of his home crowd.
“Today is going very well. We know exactly which stages we want and can attack. In other places, where there is more mud, we are slowing down the pace a bit. Now I have to finish it and bring the car to the finish,” said Thierry Neuville’s half-brother.
Jonas Dewilde follows in second place, ahead of Pierre-Manuel Brasseur. In Historic, Dirk Deveux leads the standings with his Ford Sierra Cosworth ahead of two local specialists, Reiner Feltes and Rainer Hermann.
