Competitors were faced with extremely hot weather in the Mediterranean island’s mountains, but that didn’t prevent spectators from being treated to a superb duel between Nasser Al-Attiyah (MERC) and Kajetan Kajetanowicz (ERC).
It seemed at one point that the Pole had got the better of the WRC2 champion when he went 35.7s clear after SS9, but Al-Attiyah fought back to go 1.3s clear after the penultimate test. The Qatari and his Ford Fiesta RRC/Michelin finally beat Kajetanowicz by a margin of seven seconds.
Both drivers topped their respective championship classifications, however, to edge closer to the titles they are chasing. Al-Attiyah’s fourth win of the year has taken him 49 points clear in the MERC, while Kajetanowicz’s second ‘victory’ has put him 62 points safe of ERC challenger Craig Breen.
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (Ford) was third overall in Cyprus, ahead of Portugal’s Bruno Magalhaes (Peugeot), and Robert Consani (Citroën) completed his first event after his frightening accident in the Czech Republic with a top-five finish.
The event turned out to be a big test of Alexey Lukyanuk’s arm muscles when his Ford Fiesta R5 suffered power steering failure. The Rally Estonia winner had to settle for seventh place, behind Jaromir Tarabus (Skoda).
The next round of the 2015 FIA ERC will take teams to Greece on October 9-11, a week before the Jordan Rally, round six of the FIA MERC.