Only Iván Ares shadows Cohete

Rally Blendio Princesa de Asturias


The first day of the Rally Princesa de Asturias-City of Oviedo has been a hand in hand between José Antonio Suárez Cohete and Iván Ares in which, for the moment, the Asturian pilot has won. Both seem to be going out the way they had planned. Ares has taken his main competitor out of the way in both the ERT Iberian and the Spanish Asphalt Rally Championship (CERA), the Madrid-born Pepe López, who in Llanera's TC 4, has been left out in a curve to the left, in which it has ended up crashing into a slope. Cohete, meanwhile, has regained the pulse in a campaign in which it has not been able to contest all the tests. Worse luck has run Chus Puras that in the first special of the day, on his return to the competition, suffered a puncture.  He continued in the race but without victory options.

Once the five timed sections of the first day have been contested, the José Antonio Suárez classification is co-led by Alberto Iglesias, aboard a Skoda Fabia R5, with a total time of 37: 04,700. At 17,400 seconds Ares is located, with David Vázquez as co-pilot, in a Hyundai i20 R5. The third in the classification is Surhayén Pernía, with co-driver Alba Sánchez, 55,600 seconds from Rocket and 38,200 from Ares.

Satisfaction is evident in the words of José Antonio Suárez, at the end of the Oviedo section. "It has been a good day. With the car the tests had gone well but it was important to also test it in a timed.  And now we have seen it. I hope tomorrow will be the same," he explained to the microphones of Radio Marca, official station of the test. Iván Ares had already recognized that he was "doing his best" to achieve an excellent result and that the Galician said he was suffering from mechanical problems that were taking power away from the car. Pernía is happy after Pepe López's abandonmen, as he consolidates in that third step. "The abandonment of Pepe leave us in third place. The team is doing a great job," he said.

The list of dropouts began in the first section. The Spaniard Fran Cima stayed out on the first pass of Morcín.

The Suzuki Swift Cup concludes this first day led by the team composed of driver Oscar Sarabia and co-driver Juan Antonio Dertiano, with a time of 42: 40,200 minutes. At 50,400 seconds, Miguel García and his co-driver Laura Salvo are located.

The N5 RMC Cup is led, after the first five stages, by Alfredo Tamés and Ramón Suárez, who stopped the clock in 39: 47,100 minutes. At 20 seconds are Álvaro A. Iglesias and Rodrigo Sanjuán. Both teams, aboard a Ford Fiesta.

Almost 18,000 users have had the official application of the Princesa de Asturias-Oviedo City Rally on this first day. This has allowed them to receive notifications about section closures, exits of the zero car and the first participant, incidents and also news of each end of the section. The app is available on both Android and IOS.