A dramatic Omloop: Syx handed victory after Verschueren’s five-minute penalty
Roeselare, 5 September 2026 — On the road, Vincent Verschueren won the 66th A&D Omloop van Vlaanderen. In the official classification, Bjorn Syx did. A post-race decision by the Sporting Commission to apply a five-minute time penalty to Verschueren flipped the result in the dying minutes of the weekend, handing Syx and co-driver Ari Vanrobaeys their first Belgian Rally Championship win of the season in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
The stage was set
With double title-holder Cédric Cherain and new Belgian champion Maxime Potty absent from the entry list, the Omloop opened up into a head-to-head fight between two of Belgium’s most experienced Rally2 crews. Verschueren, the 2017 Belgian champion, arrived in Roeselare as favourite in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, while Syx – quick all season but without a BRC victory to his name in 2026 – lined up as the most credible threat in the Autostal Atlantic Toyota.
The 66th edition mixed traditional Flemish tarmac with a demanding six-special-stage route and a Power Stage finish in Houthulst, the kind of event where small mistakes are magnified and consistency is king.
Day one: Verschueren draws first blood
From the opening kilometre, Verschueren and co-driver Mathieu Vynckier set the tempo. The Škoda looked planted through the fast, flowing sections, and the Harelbeke-based driver used that confidence to build a slender but meaningful advantage over Syx and Vanrobaeys.
By the end of the first leg, the gap hovered around the half-minute mark – enough to control the rally, not enough to relax. Behind them, Davy Vanneste (Citroën C3 Rally2) and Steven Dolfen (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) kept the pressure on in the battle for the final podium place, but the narrative was clearly about the two men at the front.
Day two: Syx pushes, Verschueren holds
Saturday’s second leg brought more intensity. Syx and Vanrobaeys upped the pace, taking stage wins and chipping away at the deficit as the Omloop moved towards its climax. On paper, the gap began to shrink; in the car, the pressure was mounting.
Verschueren, aware that every tenth counted in the championship fight, responded. He didn’t always take the stage, but he kept the margin safe, driving with the calm precision that has defined his long BRC career. Through SS9 and into the final run towards Houthulst, the order on the road still read: Verschueren first, Syx second, Verschueren was controlling his run. A couple of costly errors had crept into Syx’s drive.
When the Škoda crossed the final time control, Verschueren and Vynckier believed they had secured their second Omloop victory, nine years after their first. The podium ceremony was prepared with them on top, Syx and Vanrobaeys in second, Vanneste third.
Then came the bulletin from the Sporting Commission.
The penalty that changed everything
After the final results had been posted and the celebrations begun, a decision from the Sporting Commission altered the classification: Vincent Verschueren was handed a five-minute time penalty.
The reason was procedural rather than performance-related. Officials found that Verschueren’s tyre card had been filled in with erasable ink, whereas the regulations require non-erasable ink. The commission noted that there were no alterations or overwrites on the card and no intent to falsify, but still applied the five-minute sanction as provided for in the rules.
The effect was immediate and decisive. With the penalty applied, Verschueren’s total time jumped beyond Syx’s, moving the Toyota crew from second to first in the official standings. The updated podium, as circulated by the championship and reported across Belgian media, read: Syx / Vanrobaeys first, Vanneste second, Dolfen third, with Verschueren / Vynckier dropping to fourth.
For Verschueren, it was a bitter twist after a weekend where his pace had rarely been in doubt. For Syx, it was a breakthrough win at last – albeit one that came via the stewards’ office rather than the final stage time.
Syx’s breakthrough, Vanneste’s maiden BRC podium
In the revised classification, Bjorn Syx and Ari Vanrobaeys are recorded as the winners of the 66th A&D Omloop van Vlaanderen, their first BRC victory of the 2026 campaign. The result lifts them in the championship standings and gives Autostal Atlantic a headline win on one of Belgium’s most historic rallies.
The biggest personal story of the weekend, beyond the penalty drama, belonged to Davy Vanneste. The Menenaar and his co-driver Denis Squedin, in their Citroën C3 Rally2, moved from third on the road to second in the final standings after Verschueren’s sanction. It marked Vanneste’s first-ever Belgian Rally Championship podium, a milestone achieved against two of the country’s most established Rally2 drivers.
Steven Dolfen, who had looked set for a podium finish on pure pace, ended third after engine trouble for Enzo Ide in the closing kilometres promoted him ahead of the penalised Verschueren.
Final podium (after penalty)
- 1st: #2 Bjorn Syx / Ari Vanrobaeys – Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, RC2
- 2nd: #5 Davy Vanneste / Denis Squedin – Citroën C3 Rally2, RC2
- 3rd: #1 Steven Dolfen / Thomas Walbrecq – Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo, RC2
- 4th: #3 Vincent Verschueren / Mathieu Vynckier – Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, RC2 (5-minute penalty)
What it means for the BRC
Undoubtedly this penalty is controversial. We will do a longer article and video on it in due course. There was no competitive advantage and the tyre rules were followed. We are not disputing the need of a penalty, but one like this is unreasonable. An administrative penalty that has no sporting is reasonable. A fine, or suspended fine would be suitable. This rally was stuggling for a feel-good story this year. Then we got it. And it was taken away and there would be few without a bitter taste. The Stewards did their job and implenented the penalty as required. But the penalty is wrong and this needs to be looked into for the next season.
After the penalty:
- Syx gains a full victory’s worth of points and momentum heading into the next round, finally converting his consistent top-five pace into a win.
- Vanneste takes a career-best result, proving that a privateer Citroën can mix with the factory-backed Škodas and Toyotas when the weekend is clean and fast.
- Verschueren still scores heavily, but loses both the psychological edge of a “home” win and the maximum points that come with it, while also being left to wonder what might have been without the tyre-card infraction.
In a season that has already seen multiple first-time winners and shifting alliances in the RC2 class, the Omloop’s dramatic finish underlines a familiar truth in Belgian rallying: the fight is rarely over until the last classification is published – and sometimes not even then.
By Sam Tickell. www.racerviews.com
