Abbring won Ypres Rally

Hi, Steemers!

Ex-works Hyundai driver Kevin Abbring won Ypres Rally after Neuville's shunt on first day of competition. To remind you: Thierry Neuville is a current Hyundai driver and Kevin Abbring is ex driver of the same company.

He tested for them last two seasons with several outings in WRC and R5 machines but team bosses weren't happy enough to keep him in the squad for this season. Before Hyundai he was in works Peugeot team driving 208 T16 R5 car with some success.

Ypres rally is really quick event with high average speeds. It has long straights with 90 degree corners and it's very important to drive very clean because the smallest mistake can dismiss you from the rally like we saw what Neuville did.

Neuville before the shunt

Neuville after the shunt

It was part of European Rally Championship but rally organizers weren't satisfied with promotion of ERC and Eurosport so they parted companies. Problem could also be entry fee to ERC which is around 400k € (paying to Eurosport who has promotional rights for ERC in deal with FIA). If you count 2 or 3000 € per entrant (no works teams last two seasons), how much entrants you must have to cover expences?! Very much. And the rally has around 100 competitors. It's not enough.

You must pay the organization, road cleaning after the rally, guards, etc.

So this season Ypres rally was part of Belgium and British championship (very interesting tie).

Biggest fight (after Neuville's shunt) was between Abbring (driving Peugeot 208 T16 R5) and Bouffier (Škoda Fabia R5). And I must be sincere, I expected that Bouffier will win. But he didn't. Margin between them was tiny 8 seconds but it was enough for Abbring to take the win and go home with smile on his face.

That's the meaning of the sport: COMPETITION.

Let the best win!