Tuesday, 13th May 2008

'Silver medal' for Czech star in Portugal.

Jan Kopecky took the runners-up spot on the Rally de Portugal last weekend, his second outing in the 2008 Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Kopecky, who had finished day one in fourth place, gained two more spots on the second leg when Nicolas Vouilloz lost time with a puncture and Francois Duval was forced out in SS10 with a wheel bearing failure.

That promoted Jan to second and he eventually finished 45.8 seconds off the winner, Luca Rossetti and a similar amount up on Vouilloz, who had to settle for the final place on the rostrum.

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Speaking at the finish the Czech was delighted to take 'silver', especially as the weather was so unpredictable: "Second place is an excellent result, which did not come about easily," he explained. "Today we made mistakes in tyre selection for both sections, and that is why I could not attack.

"In the morning section we selected a mixture that was too soft and on the contrary in the afternoon it was too hard, because the weather cooled down due to unexpected rain showers.

"At the service the weather was sunny and there was no indication of possible rain and this is what very much complicated the right selection. Locally the rain was very strong and the visibility was extremely low.

"The car ran to my satisfaction however, and I am very glad that only in our second IRC race we were able to get up on the podium. It is a great success for all of the members of Motorsport Kopecký team, who did their best to achieve a good result. I was very pleased by the presence of Czech fans along the special stages too and in the service zone. I value their support very much."

Motorsport Kopecky team boss Josef Kopecký meanwhile was also pleased with the result and combined with Jan's fifth place finish on the Istanbul Rally back in April, it takes his tally to 12 points and puts him third in the IRC drivers' standings.

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