ŠKODA MOTORSPORT NEWSLETTER

Despite COVID-19 is still an ongoing topic, the in-ternational motorsports and rallying is gearing up.

The calendar of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) had to be reshuf-fled – again. Wherever our sport is somehow back, ŠKODA Motorsport customers roll their FABIA Rally2 or FABIA Rally2 evo out of the workshop and hit the stages. Two rounds of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) are already behind us, with ŠKODA pri-vateers making up the majority of the

ERC1 Junior category. Our factory driv-er Jan Kopecký and privateer Filip Mareš are well positioned in the Czech Rally Championship. And finally, in Septem-ber, the WRC comes out of a six months corona break with Rally Estonia. Our WRC2 Champion of 2017, Pontus Tide-mand, will facing the challenge in Esto-nia with his private entered ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, run by Team Toksport WRT. I wish him and all of ten ŠKODA privateers, making our brand again the strongest one among the 31 entries in the RC2 class all the best and good luck!

Enjoy this new edition of our newslet-ter. We will keep you updated about the results and progress of our customers in international and national series.

• August 2020

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1 Editorial by Michal Hrabánek

2Review ERC rounds Rally di Roma Capitale and Rally Liepāja

Standings category ERC1 Junior

3

WRC resumes with Rally Estonia

WRC calendar, remaining rallies

KOWAX Rally ValMez, Czech Rally Championship

4

Other recent rally results

Facts about the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 and ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo

5History – 10 years ago: Triple ŠKODA podium at Barum Rally Zlín

CONTENT:

ŠKODA MOTORSPORT CUSTOMERS HITTING THE STAGES AGAINBy Michal Hrabánek, Director of ŠKODA Motorsport

Albert von Thurn und Taxis/Bernhard Ettel (DEU/AUT) at the start of Rally di Roma Capitale with their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo

• NEWS RALLY DI ROMA CAPITALE

RALLY LIEPĀJA

The season opener of the FIA European Champi-onship (ECR) was the first international rally after the corona break. Hence, the hygiene protocol was

as much of interest as the sporting aspect. Drivers had to wear face masks whenever out of the car, mechanics all the time. The service park was off-limits to fans, who had to reg-ister online for designated spectator areas stage-side. The event in the vicinity of the Italian capital went surprisingly smooth with 2018 ERC champion Alex Lukyanuk winning

overall. Romanian Simone Tempestini in fifth was highest placed driver of a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2.In ERC1 Junior category, four of eight competitors fielded the Czech rally car. Emil Lindholm from Finland took the role to fight with World Champion son Oliver Solberg (VW) from Norway and Luxembourger Grégoire Munster (Hyundai). After 15 stages covering 198 kilometres, Solberg won the category from Lindholm and Munster. Third ŠKODA driver inside the top 10 overall next to Tempestini and Lindholm was Filip Mareš from Czech Republic.

From the Italian tarmac the ERC travelled to the Latvian gravel. Oliver Solberg repeated his overall victory from 2019. Best ŠKODA driver home was

Finland’s Eerik Pietarinen in fourth overall.Ten competitors eligible for ERC1 Junior – less than 28 years old, Rally2 car – took the start. Five of them trusted the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 in original or evo version. While overall victor Solberg automatically won this category as well, sec-ond went to ŠKODA privateer Emil Lindholm. The young Finn this time beat Grégoire Munster, closing the gap to the Luxembourger in the overall standings to one single point. The difference is a result of the ERC scoring system, which awards points for each leg as well as for the overall result. Miko Marczyk

from Poland drove his ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo to sixth in ERC1 Junior. In addition to Pietarinen and Lindholm another Finn, Mikko Heikkilä, completed a ŠKODA trio inside the top 10 overall.

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Eerik Pietarinen/Antti Linnaketo (FIN/FIN), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2

Emil Lindholm/Mikael Korhonen (FIN/FIN), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo

Simone Tempestini/Sergio Itu (ROM/ROM), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2

Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (CZE/CZE), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo

STANDINGS FIA EUROPEAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP, ERC1 JUNIOR (after 2 of 6 rounds)

WRC 2

1. Oliver Solberg (SWE) VW 80 points

2. Grégoire Munster (LUX) Hyundai 49 points

3. Emil Lindholm (FIN) ŠKODA 48 points

4. Efrén Llarena (ESP) Citroën 48 points

5. Miko Marczyk (POL) ŠKODA 34 points

6. Simone Tempestini (ROM) ŠKODA 30 points

• NEWS WRC RESUMES WITH RALLY ESTONIIA

KOWAX RALLY VALMEZ, CZECH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

After a corona break of nearly six months, the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) re-starts begin-ning of September in Estonia. It’s a WRC first for the

Baltic country. Although the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, 16,000 registered spectators will be allowed to watch the smooth and fast gravel stages. Host town is Tartu. The itiner-ary is cut down by a third to 232 kilometres, 60 crews were allowed to enter.Amongst them are 31 cars of the RC2 class, including ten ŠKODA FABIA. In one of them: Pontus Tidemand, WRC2 Champion in 2017 with ŠKODA Motorsport. The Swede, cur-rently third overall in the WRC2 standings, competes in Esto-nia with a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo of team Toksport WRT. The German outfit has entered a similar car for Norwegian Eyvind Brynildsen. Finnish youngsters Emil Lindholm, current-ly third in the FIA European Rally Championship’s ERC1 Junior category, and Eerik Pietarinen also field ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo as well as three times FIA European Rally Champion Ka-jetan Kajetanowicz from Poland.

For ŠKODA factory driver Jan Kopecký, being fastest on seven out of 15 stages – one ex-aequo with the eventual winner – was not enough to

take victory at the Czech Championship’s second round. In the end, Kopecký and co-driver Jan Hloušek, as usual sharing a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, lost out with 5.3 sec-onds to Václav Pech/Petr Uhel in a World Rally Car spec Ford Focus. In scorching summer heat on the tarmac stages around Kopřivnice, Kopecký and Pech traded times in tenths of a second range. Pech reached the finish of the first leg with a lead of just 2.9 seconds. Due to the high average speed of the second leg’s stages – sometimes reaching 135 km/h –, Kopecký had no chance to hunt down the WRC car. Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha of the newly founded Laureta Auto ŠKODA Team brought an-other ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo onto the podium. Five more ŠKODA crews finished inside the top ten, demon-strating the dominance of the Czech car in this champion-ship. With  two rounds to go, defending champion Ko-pecký now holds second in the overall classification, stable mate Mareš is third.

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Pontus Tidemand/Patrik Barth (SWE/SWE), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, Rally Mexico

Jan Kopecký/Jan Hloušek (CZE/CZE), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo at Rally Bohemia.

FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) remaining rounds

4 – 6 September Rally Estonia

18 – 20 September Rally Turkey

8 – 11 October Rally Italia Sardegna

19 – 22 November Renties Ypres Rally Belgium

• NEWS OTHER RECENT RALLY RESULTS:

Bulgaria: Miroslav Angelov/Georgi Gadzhev (BUL/ BUL), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, won the

season opening Rally Tvarditsa in their home country.

Bolivia: Locals Roberto Saba/Humberto Roca (BOL/BOL), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2, finished on

top of only 15 crews reaching the finish of Rally El Torno.

Lithunia: Vaidotas Žala and co-driver Andris Mālnieks (LTU/LVA), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2,

won the Lithuanian Championship category of Rally Samsonas Rokiškis.

Latvia: ERC qualifier Rally Liepāja also counted towards the Latvian Championship. Category

winners were Raul Jeets/Andrus Toom (EST/EST), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo.

Mauritius: Rajesh Ramdenee/Richey Beeness-reesingh (MUS/MUS), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2,

from the Indian Ocean island were fastest over Rally Eiffel’s 32 kms only – albeit divided into seven stages.

Portugal: Miguel Nunes/João Paulo (PRT/PRT), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, from Portugal took

the victory at the Rali Vinho Da Madeira.

Romania: All ŠKODA podium at Rally Sibiului with local crew Simone Tempestini/Sergiu Itu

(ROM/ROM), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2, on top.

Russia: Vasiliy Gryazin/Yaroslav Fedorov (RUS/RUS), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2, won the first round

of their home championship after the corona break.

FACTS ABOUT ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 AND ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 EVO

ŠKODA MOTORSPORT: Further information:Zbyněk Straškraba, Communications MotorsportP +420 605 293 168zbynek.straskraba@skoda-auto.czhttp://skoda-motorsport.com

• HISTORY

10 YEARS AGOIn August 2010, Barum Rally Zlín was part of the Interconti-nental Rally Challenge (IRC),

FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) and Czech Rally Championship (MČR). The podium was a ŠKODA lockout with FABIA S2000 teams taking top three. Victory went to Belgian crew Freddy Loix/Frédéric Miclotte, ahead of Juho Hänninen/Irkku Markkula (FIN/FIN) and Pavel Valoušek/Zdeněk Hrůza (CZE/CZE).

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Freddy Loix/Frédéric Miclotte (BEL/BEL), ŠKODA FABIA S2000

Juho Hänninen/Mikko Markkula (FIN/FIN) finished second with their ŠKODA FABIA S2000