Kopecký leads for ŠKODA at the halfway point in Romania

Four stage victories, one success at night. 5.4-second lead going into the second day. ŠKODA pairing Kopecký and Dresler lead in the ERC overall standings. Jan Kopecký and Pavel Dresler (CZ/CZ) kept everything under control during the night to lead at the halfway point of the Sibiu Rally in Romania. The ŠKODA duo have opened up a 15.4-second lead over France's Francois Delecour going into day two of the seventh race of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) season. "As expected, that was a really tough day," said Kopecký: "Before the start, our plan for today was to avoid making any silly mistakes that could cost us the entire race. That can happen quite quickly here. I think we did a good job and we'll continue from where we left off on Saturday." With this being the team's first appearance in Romania, the duo in the ŠKODA Fabia S2000 quickly adapted to the tricky track conditions after a careful start, winning four of the day's seven stages. The rally is predominantly run on gravel and its last two stages took place at night. Thousands of spectators lined the hard dirt roads, which are riddled with large rocks. Seven more stages covering 126.3 kilometres of Transylvanian countryside are scheduled for Saturday. ŠKODA pairing Kopecký and Dresler lead in the ERC overall standings at the halfway point. The Sibiu Rally is the first of six ERC events taking place in the second half of the season – the best four results will go towards the final standings. Source: skoda-auto