For his Skoda debut, Frenchman Stéphane Lefèbvre had a little difficulty finding the right rhythm before having to prematurely throw down the gauntlet with a broken gearbox. Damage.
As for Cédric Cherain, irregular, he alternated between the very good (3 scratches) and the less good, or even not good at all, to end up in 5th place at 38.1, a few seconds behind his teammate on the Hyundai BMA Bastien Rouard and three seconds ahead of BRC leader Niels Reynvoet.
After a first loop to get underway, grandpa Verstappen then put the car into overdrive on a circuit-style course where he was the fastest three times. Among the only ones not to have made any mistakes, Hutois driver Renaud Jamoul returned to Jambes in the lead this Saturday evening with a significant lead of 12 seconds over Adrian Fernémont who had not yet admitted defeat. Victory will be decided between these two during the nine special stages still on the menu for the second Sunday stage.
A priori, Max Potty is too far away to still be able to referee the debates even if we can be sure that he will fight as always until the end.
Good seventh place for John Wartique's Polo, barely ten seconds from the podium. He precedes the C3 of Vincent Verschueren, Cédric De Cecco (lacking pace for his first rally of the season, but still there!) and Emile Breitmayer who did not compete in the last special of the day which was neutralized after Fred Miclotte who hit a chicane.
Good twelfth place for Tom Boonen, improving, ahead of the Porsche R-GTs of Kris Princen and Romain Delhez separated by thirteen seconds.
Tom Heindrichs leads in the Stellantis Cup only a second and a half ahead of the astonishing Pierre-Manuel Brasseur, who is impressive for his debut in the category.
