The Larvik Rally, run on asphalt stages in Norway, was stopped after a tragedy on the second stage. A young spectator who had been sitting in a chair died when Andreas Mikkelsen’s Subaru left the road after a jump. Leading was Mads Ostberg’s Subaru Impreza WRC while Eyvind Brynildsen, who was making his debut in a Skoda Fabia S2000 from the Rene Georges team was fifth on the first stage. Brynildsen plans to rally the Skoda at Rally GB.

The 50th Flanders Rally, qualifying round of the Belgian championship, was won by Pieter Tsjoen’s Focus WRC, but fastest on the stages was Patrick Snijers’ Subaru which was penalised on a road section when the car refused to start at a time control. The young Belgian Thierry Neuville, who drove the BF Goodrich celebrity Peugeot at the Ypres Rally, crashed his Citroen C2 R2 and it is not known if he will be able to make his WRC debut in two weeks in Spain.

Paolo Andreucci leads Renato Travaglia by two points in the Italian series after the Peugeot team driver won the Costa Smeralda Rally in Sardinia. During the course of this season, Travaglia, who finished third on this event, has rallied Fiat, Peugeot, Skoda and Mitsubishi. Trouble for Fiats: Anton Alen retired after losing a wheel, Luca Rossetti was second after puncturing. Piero Longhi’s Skoda stopped when it refused to restart.

Sixth round of the German championship as the ADAC Saarland Rally, won by Hermann Gassner Junior (Evo IX), beating Sandro Wallenwein’s Subaru with father Gassner third overall (Evo X). Gassner Junior leads Wallenwein by one point in the series with one more event to go.

Another sensational battle in the Argentine championship was fought out at the Rally de Entre Rios run from Concepcion del Uruguay. With one stage to go, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Xs of Nicolas Madero and Federico Villagra were exactly equal. On the final stage Madero took the lead by 2.1 seconds.

Hot on the heels of the Asia Pacific shoot-out for the Pirelli Star Driver award comes the African Shoot-Out to be held at this weekend’s Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally, in which the candidates will be Chase Atwell (Zimbabwe), Essa Mohammed (Zambia), Navraj Hans (Tanzania), Mathieu Andrianjafy (Madagascar), and Raj Bhaarij, Alex Horsey and Peter Horsey (all from Kenya).

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foto: Ford - Tsjoen