Temperatures well below 0°C and a north wind blowing on the Hesbaye gave the spectators of the Rally van Haspengouw the impression follow an event near the Arctic Circle. Yet it was the first round of the Belgian Rally CHampionship which was held this Saturday in the region of Landen.
There is definitely no suspense this Saturday in the region of Landen, Freddy Loix and Frederic Miclotte who dominated the Rally van Haspengouw 2013, aligning 12 scratches out of 14 stages, although the Limburg has inherited a penalty of 1'50". Enough to make of the Ford Focus RS WRC 2010 the great favorite of the national competition, in the absence of Pieter Tsjoen and Patrick Snijers.
The advantage of his opening round resided therefore in the fight for the accessits, and snatch the only two scratches that have escaped Fast Freddy, Stéphane Lhonnay blithely fulfilled its mission with the Skoda Octavia WRC BMA. If it's only a penalty of 2 full minutes (steering repaired too late) that finally made the business of Kris Princen, who took second place overall for 3"1! A little compliant result with the sport reality of the event, at least for the silver medal.
Off the podium, Bert Cornelis in a Subaru Impreza WRC S5 perfectly fullfilled its mission, especially since he fails to 8 small seconds of Lhonnay. He brings in its wake the Volkswagen Polo S2000 of Vincent Verschueren, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX of Anthony Martin and the Peugeot 207 S2000 of Melissa Debackere, returned to nearly 4 minutes.