Home win!
The Czech outfit of Skoda managed to dominate its home event with Loix, Hanninen and Valousek finishing in an impressive 1-2-3 for the Fabia’s S2000. Freddy Loix was the winner for the 3rd time this year, but his task wasn’t easy at all. The local hero Jan Kopecky, who needed the victory in order to challenge for the European Championship as well as that of IRC, was the leader of the event from the very first stage and showed he had the potential to win. But three special stages before the end he had a minor off and afterwards a spin, which resulted in his losing the lead. After that he tried to make the comeback, but he went off the road again and retired. That was a result that helped Luca Rossetti to maintain his lead and come closer to the European Rally Championship title.
So, Freddy Loix was the winner, after having benefited form the crash of Kopecky and the problems of Bryan Bouffier in a factory backed Peugeot 207 S2000, who led the event after Kopecky went off. But the Frenchman faced fuelling problems and fell back in the standings. After that, Juho Hanninen and Pavel Valousek finished in second and third place respectively, both driving Skoda’s in this 1-2-3 for the Czech outfit. The latter, benefited from a differential problem of Kris Meeke and his Peugeot 207 in the last special stage and this led to Skoda sealing the Manufacturers Championship of IRC, which showed its superiority against its opponents.