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Freistadt, 4 January, 2013 – As usual, the 2013 rallying season starts with the Jänner Rally in Austria. The weather conditions were extremely difficult today, and ŠKODA Motorsport´s factory crew Jan Kopecký & Pavel Dresler in a ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000 (who won this event last year and are also the reigning Czech champions) are in the lead after Day 1.

Snow, ice, rain, fog, evening-time stages, fast-changing on-track conditions and a tyre-choice lottery – this is what the 30th Jänner Rally is offering, and it was Jan Kopecký who coped best with all the pitfalls on the 139 kilometres of today´s leg which saw a fierce battle for every second and changes in the standings after basically every stage. Losing 20.2 seconds, Bouffier is second, Baumschlager in another Fabia is third, a further 18.7 seconds behind him.

Jan Kopecký: "This morning was a challenge, mainly the snowy and icy stretches of Stages 2 and 3. The second part of today´s leg was a typical asphalt rally on wet roads, although the rain was really heavy in the evening and there was a lot of mud on the track. It´s been a long and hard day, and tomorrow will be the same".

Scheduled for Saturday, the final leg of the Jänner Rally (109 kilometres) comprises eight stages, the last two (2x 25km) being Saturday´s longest.

The Jänner Rally is again part of both the Czech Championship and the European Championship (ERC) that started a new era in Austria – its merger with the IRC has given rise to the FIA-ERC, a single championship whose new promoter is Eurosport.

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