Cyprus Rally Update: Russian's Lukyanuk took charge of Cyprus Rally as he came top

 Alexey Lukyanuk of Russia maintained his pace on day two of the CNP Asfalistiki Cyprus Rally on Saturday, stamping his control on the last event in the European Rally Championship (ERC) by clocking the fastest time on six of the eight special stages run between Nicosia and Limassol and culminating in the Super Special stage in the centre of the capital, which was watched by thousands of fans on both sides of the Green Line.

The Russian Ford Fiesta R5 driver kept the gap to second place at around one minute, and increased it to one minute, 35 seconds by the time the crews turned in for the night.

That’s a pretty comfortable cushion to secure the runner-up slot on the Championship leaderboard as there are just four stages on Sunday’s final leg.

German driver Marijan Griebel, the ERC Junior champion, finished the day in second place, just ahead of Ralfs Sirmacis, who had hoped to snatch the ERC runner-up slot from Lukyanuk when he came to Cyprus, and was chasing hard in third but looking unlikely to make up enough time to challenge the Russian.

It was a relatively short day for Latvian Nikolay Gryazin, who had been lying second at the start of the day, but whose spirited run came to an untimely end on SS6 when he went off the road, leaving the way clear for Griebel to move up to second, with Hungary’s David Botka and Cypriot Costas Demosthenous battling for split seconds in fourth and fifth place.

Botka overcame some fuel pump problems to move up to fourth over the course of the day, but both he and Griebel were just two of many drivers who came to the end of the last stage with their cars looking very much the worse for wear, most of them caught out on the jumps and big water splash in the moat in the buffer zone.
Six Cypriot drivers are in the top ten at the end of the second Leg.

The cars set off on the final Leg at 7.30 on Sunday morning, tackling stages at Stavrovouni and Petrofani before heading to the big money Love Cyprus final two stages from Petounta Point to Ayios Theodoros (starting at 11.30 am) and from there to Pervolia (starting at 12.30pm), with the final stage running along the coast to Petounta Point, with €60,000 in prize money up for grabs.

The official Finish and podium ceremony will take place on the Limassol seafront at 3pm.

Standings at the end of Day 2:

1. LUKYANUK A. 1:39:00.3

2. GRIEBEL M. 1:40:35.8

3. SIRMACIS R. 1:41:17.4

4. BOTKA D. 1:43:28.0

5. DEMOSTHENOUS C. 1:43:35.4

6. CHIPS JUNIOR 1:45:47.0

7. ZENONOS C. 1:46:01.2

8. SAVVA S. 1:48:24.5

9. POSEDIAS M. 1:50:15.4

10. ANTONIOU S. 1:51:07.1