Ypres Rally

After a year off we returned to Ypres to see the British Rally Championship make its first foray on to Belgian soil. As well as the Belgian Rally Championship contenders there was the prospect of competing against Thierry Neuville & Nicolas Gilsoul (i20 R5). The British crews would be up against and the carnage on the opening night showed that the Flandrian roads take no prisoners as even Neuville was caught on on stage 6, rolling his car out of the rally lead but returning for the following day under super rally rules. Overnight, after 8 stages, Bryan Bouffier & Gilbert Dini (Fabia R5) held a 21.9s led over Kevin Abbring & Pieter Tsjoen (208 T16), thanks to 5 fastest stage times.

Ypres Historic Rally

On top of all of this there were two separate Historic rallies too, each with their own battles and dramas. Paul Lietaer & Marc Noppe (Legacy) dominated the event and won by over 3 minutes. Behind though the battles were intense and it was Tom van Rompuy & Jens Vanoverschelde (M3) who took 2nd from Danny Kerckhof & Kristof Dejonghe (M3) after Erik Comas & Yannick Roche (Stratos) dropped 3 minutes on the final stage, whilst lying 3rd just 8s behind van Rompuy. Comas did hold on to 3rd in the FIA Historic Championship, with Ville Silvasti & Asko Sairanen (911) taking victory from Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Stratos) by 29.3s.

Critérium du Dauphiné

The annual trip to the Dauphiné and what looked like an unexciting route on first glance, proved to be a superb route which tested the main protagonists to the limit. With Chris Froome (Team Sky) looking for win number 4 on the Dauphiné, ahead of his attempt to win a 4th Tour de France, everyone was looking to him to see his form. Stage 4 gave an answer as he failed to win or even make the top 5 on the stage it was Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) who took the stage win to climb to 2nd overall behind early leader Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal).