Alexandros Tsouloftas and co-driver Stelios Elia, in the bucket of a Volkswagen Polo GTi, won all six of Sunday’s (26/9) special stages. Along with their five second places in Saturday’s (25/9) five special stages, they won the 49th International Cyprus Rally 2021, for the first time in their careers. With this victory, Tsouloftas moved to the top of the standings of the Pancyprian Championship, with two events remaining, while at the same time, he is also leading the Greek Championship after two rallies, a press release says.
Petros Panteli / Pampos Laos finished in second place with a Citroen DS3 overtaking Al Rawahi / Al Hmoud (Ford Fiesta) in the last stage and relegating them to third place. Fourth position went to Yiangou / Englezou with a Hyundai i20.
The finish ceremony and the awards presentations took place in Eleftheria square, in the centre of Nicosia, on Sunday afternoon.
In the MERC 2 category, an exciting battle took place, with Christodoulou / Xenophontos prevailing, with a Subaru Impreza. They managed to surpass Antoniou / Pieris (Mitsubishi Lancer) in the afternoon stages, after initially dropping from first earlier in the morning. At the end, Antoniou / Pieris had to settle with third place, with Savva / Papandreou (Mitsubishi Lancer) managing to claim second in the end. In the 2WD category, Televantos / Stavrou with a Peugeot 208 comfortably prevailed.
The 49th International Cyprus Rally was organized by the Cyprus Automobile Association. It was the 4th round of the Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) and the 4th and 5th round of the Pancyprian Championship. The rally covered a total of 665.74km of which 180.92km comprised the 12 gravel stages, one of which was cancelled due to the Al Attiyah accident.