Blog
Thrilling finale to Cyprus Rally
June 18, 2018
The second day of the 2018 Cyprus rally proved to be just as exciting as the first, with thrills and spills a-plenty for the fans who had gathered both in the centre of Nicosia for the mostly tarmac Super Special stage which was run early on Sunday morning, and on the fast gravel tests in the countryside.
Overnight race leader Juuso Nordgren survived the first two stages of the day but perhaps the pressure of heading the field by such a small margin began to tell mid-morning: he rolled his Škoda Fabia R5 on stage 9 and dropped down to fourth place. The error handed first place to Simos Galatariotis who was closely followed by Bruno Magalhaes and Nasser Al Attiyah, who both had their own agendas with the finish line in sight.
Magalhaes wanted the podium to move to the top of the ERC leaderboard after the demise of Alexey Lukyanuk, while Al Attiyah was hoping to rack up his sixth win on this event after a disastrous first day beset by punctures which saw him drop from first to fourth place on Saturday.