Chatillon closes on WRC3 Central European Rally victory

The Frenchman, driving a Renault Clio Rally3, began Saturday with a lead of 35.1sec and saw it progressively grow as the day unfolded on the back of top three times on every one of Saturday’s six stages.

Filip Kohn, competing in Central European Rally as his prize for winning the Fiesta Rally Trophy in the FIA European Rally Championship, arrived back in the Karpfham service park clinging onto the runner-up spot, just 14.6sec ahead of Poland’s Hubert Laskowski, in an identical Fiesta Rally3.

Flying the flag for rally co-hosts Germany, Hermann Gaßner continued to impress in his WRC3 debut and is 8.5sec off a podium position in his Clio, ready to pounce on Sunday should Kohn or Laskowski falter.

Going into the weekend as a strong podium contender, Jan Černy’s weekend went from bad to worse. The Czech hopeful lost two minutes on Friday with brake failure whilst his Saturday issues were more self-inflicted, failing to slow down to the target speed in a virtual chicane, seeing him incur a penalty of 1min 04sec. It meant that, despite setting three quickest times across the day’s six stage, he is lagging in fifth position, 56.6sec behind Gaßner.