Their goal is to fight for the highest place on the podium like last year. Lukyanuk-Arnautov (Ford Fiesta R5) are currently in the second place in FIA ERC standings, 15 points behind championship leaders Kajetan Kajetanowicz-Jaroslav Baran (Ford Fiesta R5). Known by their attractive driving style and having numerous fans from all over Europe, Lukyanuk-Arnautov will add a strong competitive moment to this year’s event and the fight for the overall victory will be very tense.
„It’s always great to compete in Estonia as there is a good atmosphere. For sure we want to win here again but it is not an easy task. Looking to the entry list there is many fast drivers from Europe and as the previous years have shown the local boys are here fast and hungry for the podium,“ said Lukyanuk.
Besides Kajetanowicz-Baran there are many more fast drivers in the entry list of auto24 Rally Estonia. Ralfs Sirmacis-Arturs Šimins (Skoda Fabia R5) from Latvia are currently holding third place in FIA ERC standings. Sander Pärn-James Morgan (Ford Fiesta R5) and Raul Jeets-Andrus Toom (Skoda Fabia R5) should be fast on their home roads. For the first time are in Estonia the reigning Polish champions Lukasz Habaj-Piotr Wos (Ford Fiesta R5) and Hiroki Arai-Glenn Macneall and Takamoto Katsuta-Daniel Barrit are participating. The entrant for the Japanese-Australian and Japanese-British crews is Tommi Mäkinen Racing and both will drive Ford Fiesta R5 cars.
In ERC2 the Estonian best Group N drivers are fighting for the ERC2 victory and podium in overall standings. Among others the third place winners of auto24 Rally Estonia 2015 Rainer Aus-Simo Koskinen (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9), winners of last two rounds of Estonian championship Egon Kaur-Silver Simm (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9) and reigning Estonian champions Siim Plangi-Marek Sarapuu (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X) will be among starters.
In addition to being a part of ERC in 2016, auto24 Rally Estonia is also a round of FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship. auto24 Rally Estonia is held on 15-17th of July in Tartu, Elva and on the roads of South-Estonia.
