Several crews carried out tests on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of the 50th Cyprus Rally which begins on Friday 6 October. According to a statement by the rally organisers, on Tuesday the two title contenders in the Middle East Rally Championship were in the Machairas area (Mandra tou Kambiou), the record holder of victories in Cyprus (7 firsts) Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), with the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 and Mathieu Baumel (Andorra) as co-driver, and the leader of the Middle East Rally Championship Abdullah Al-Rawahi (Oman), with the Škoda Fabia R5 and Ata Al-Hmoud (Jordan) as co-driver. As stated, the rainy weather of the last few days has brought about a situation rarely seen in the Cyprus Rally, that of cars on the special stages not picking up heavy dust on their passes, however the weather forecast for the duration of the race shows sunshine, as is customary in the tough Cyprus special stages. It is added that on Wednesday, in the same area (Machairas) but on a different route, Simos Galatariotis / Antonis Ioannou tested the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 and Christos Demosthenous / Cyprus Christodoulou the Škoda Fabia R5. Recce is planned for Thursday and Friday, while scrutineering is taking place on Thursday from 10 am to 4 pm at Ledra College Workshop, the statement concludes.
Source: Cyprus News Agency