The summer in the center of Europe is over and racers and fans will watch the rally in cold and rain.
The expectations are for more rain, cold and cloudy weather.
Electric cars part of the German championship ADAC OPEL e-RALLY CUP will take part in Rally Barum Zlin.
In Shakedown today, the expected best time was achieved by Jan Kopecy / B. Rendlova (Ford Fiesta R5) with a time of 2:49.90. 1.5 seconds behind them are V. Cvrcek / Ondrej Salek (Skoda Fabia R5).
The main competitors of the Czech crew Andreas Mikkelsen andAlexey Lukyanuk did not take part.
After a while the super special stage begins.
In the classification stage, however, Andreas Mikkelsen / Jonas Andresson (Skoda Fabia) scored for the first time with a time of 2:34.711. Jan Kopecy is third in 0.53 sec.

The Czech Barum Zlin Rally will take place on August 27th and 28th. The race is the 4th round of the European Rally Championship out of a total of 8.

Recent winners:

2020: No Rally
2019: Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo)
2018: Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5)
2017: Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5)
2016: Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5)
2015: Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5)

The statistics above show that the Czech Rally has no other leader but the Czech company driver of Skoda. Over the past year, Jan Kopecký has won convincingly with no real competition. Will it be the same this year?
However, this year the competition in the European Rally Championship is much stronger.
Two serious competitors will compete with Jan Kopecký, and these are Andresa Mikkelsen / Jonas Andersson also with Skoda Fabia R5 Evo.
The other competition is from the leaders in the general classification Alexey Lukyanuk / Alexey Arnautov with Citroën C3 Rally2.
Although according to some Citroen is not at the level of Skoda, Lukyanuk risks to the last to keep his lead, which is only 1 point ahead of Mikkelsen.
While Jan Kopecký does not participate in the full program of the championship, the others would not risk with a big difference at the beginning, while tactically the game is between Alexey Lukyanuk and Andresa Mikkelsen.
A total of 146 applications have been submitted for Barum Czech Rally Zlin. A total of 15 stages, 211 km of racing distance and 574 km of hiking are planned.
The center of the competition is South Moravia, about 300 km south of Prague.

In the Italian Rally di Roma Capitale, which takes place about 40 km east of Rome, 96 crews started. The race is part of the European Rally Championship.
Competitors drove 13 speed stages, the longest of which is 21.17 km long and the entire race distance is 190 km.
On the first day of the race, the surprise was presented by Andrea Crugnola / Pietro Elia Ometto, Hyundai i20 (Hyundai Rally Team Italia), who led with 5.4 seconds ahead of Giandomenico Basso / Lorenzo Granai (Skoda Fabia Evo / Movisport) and European champions for 2020 Alexey Lukyanuk / Alexey Arnautov Citroen C3 (Sainteloc Junior Team) with a lag of 21.8 seconds. The Russians started the battle quite cautiously, betting on safe driving.
The Italian rally has a very strong competition, among them Andreas Mikkelsen / Ola Fløene, who despite their efforts and changes in settings failed to break up in the standings, finishing 17th in the general classification. Mickelsen hit a rock on the road in speed stage 2, where there were problems with the suspension.
In the 9th speed stage Santopadre - Arpino 1 the longest stage the Russians Alexey Lukyanuk / Alexey Arnautov had an accident and left the race. The crew is fine, no casualties. Some pilots described the stage as very difficult and with a much different asphalt than the others.
Andrea Crugnola / Pietro Elia had a flat tire in the second stage for Sunday after hitting a stone that was not in the notes and losing more than half a minute. Were it not for this loss with the flat tire, their position at the top would have been difficult for Basso to take.
Very strong performance of the Romanian crew Simone Tempestini / Itu Sergiu with Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo, who won the penultimate stage and reached the 7th place in the general classification.
The winners were Giandomenico Basso / Lorenzo Granai (Skoda Fabia Evo / Movisport), who in the last stages bet on safe driving with a total time of 1: 54: 06.6. The 47-year-old Basso is well known in Bulgaria for his regular appearances at Rally Bulgaria in previous years. Andrea Crugnola / Pietro Elia Ometto, Hyundai i20 (Hyundai Rally Team Italia) kept the second place with a lag of 35.8 seconds.
Hungarians Norbert Herczig / Ramón Ferencz with Skoda Fabia Evo took the last place on the podium, making one of the best achievements in their career after a lot of hard work and perseverance. They were 40.4 seconds behind and only 4.6 seconds separated them from second place.