Andrea Mabellini produced an impressive drive to avoid trouble that caught out many of his rivals to lead ERC Staff House Rally Hungary after an eventful Saturday.
The Italian, driving a Pirelli-equipped Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for The Racing Factory posted fastest times in four of Saturday's six tricky gravel stages, to hold a 10.6sec lead over Team MRF Tyres' Roope Korhonen. Last year's Rally Hungary winner Simone Tempestini completed the day in third, 30.8sec adrift.
Mabellini jumped to the rally lead after winning stage two (Hegyesd, 18.75km) before extending that advantage over the hard-charging Korhonen to 4.0sec at the end of the morning loop. There was some drama for the crew when co-driver Virginia Lenzi felt some discomfort in her back after a heavy landing from a jump on the mammoth Kislőtér test but was given the all clear to continue.
The pair posted an identical time to rival Jon Armstrong to top stage five before driving smartly through the heavily-rutted second pass of Kislőtér. Mabellini ended the day by winning stage seven (Várpalota 2) to extend the lead over Korhonen to 10.6sec.
"The pace is really high and tomorrow is another day. I think we had a great time today and sorry to Virgi [co-driver] for the jump this morning," said Mabellini.
Korhonen started the afternoon 4.0sec behind Mabellini but his victory challenge seemed to have suffered a blow in Kislőtér 2 when the Finn was caught in the dust of the recovering Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Armstrong. Unfortunately, Armstrong, sitting third at the time 3.6sec behind Korhonen was forced to stop twice in the stage due to tyre damage that required two wheel changes.
Korhonen initially dropped 29.5sec due to the the hanging dust from Armstrong and dropped to fourth before officials later issued a revised time that restored his second position.
"It has been a quite clean day for us so let's see what we can do tomorrow. Of course it is difficult [to avoid tyre damage] but luckily we have good tyres, so it is good."
Armstrong's misfortune dropped the Ford driver out of the points-paying positions after what had been a strong start to the weekend.
"The conditions were quite rough. The first puncture was in the rough section but then the second one we were stuck in dust and going slowly and I don't even know what happened there," said Armstrong.
"To get two in the one stage is pretty unlucky. I don't know what the game plan is now but it is a big shame as everything was going quite well."
Last year's winner and overnight leader Tempestini inherited third position after setting the pace in the same stage Armstrong experienced his problems.
The Michelin-shod Škoda of Miko Marczyk moved into fourth in what proved to be a hotly contested battle for the final podium spot. The Polish driver ended the day 3.7sec ahead of Mads Østberg, driving a Citroen C3 Rally2. Isak Reiersen enjoyed an impressive run to sixth in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 on Hankook rubber.
The top 10 was completed by Poland's Jakub Matulka ahead of a trio of Hungarians in Martin László, Gábor Német and Sasa Ollé. The latter additionally leads the ERC Masters Class by 28.2sec from Jos Verstappen.
Max McRae continued his charge up the leaderboard, ending the day in 18th after dropping to 63rd following a crash on Friday night's super special. That incident led to 3min 10sec of penalties for being late to a time control and out of service.
In ERC3, Tristan Charpentier leads Igor Widłak by 2min 11.2sec after early leader Tymoteusz Abramowski suffered tyre and radiator damage in stage five.
Opel Motorsport's Calle Carlberg topped the Junior ERC and ERC4 standings with a 46.2s advantage over Jaspar Vaher, driving the new Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF.
Standings after Saturday:
1. A Mabellini / V Lenzi ITA Škoda Fabia RS 1h 1m 17.9s
2. R Korhonen / A Viinikka FIN Toyota GR Yaris +10.6s
3. S Tempistini / S Itu ROU Škoda Fabia RS +30.8s
4. M Marczyk / S Gospodarczyk POL Škoda Fabia RS +38.2s
5. M Østberg / T Eriksen NOR Citroën C3 Rally2 +41.9s
6. I Reiersen / S Gustavsson SWE Škoda Fabia RS +1m 26.7s ...
