Azores ERC: Jan Kopecky leads as Robert Kubica rolls

Skoda driver Kopecky had taken the lead from Kubica on the final stage of the morning when thick fog caused the grand prix winner to back off and surrender the top spot.

Despite not setting the pace on any of the three stages run during the afternoon, the Czech driver kept his lead, albeit with his advantage over Craig Breen's Sainteloc Peugeot reduced from 16.4 to 13.1 seconds.

Bruno Magalhaes overhauled his Portuguese compatriots to take third spot with Ricardo Moura and Bernardo Sousa - the latter fastest on SS9 - behind him.

Kubica started the afternoon sixth, but reduced the gap to fifth place courtesy of the fastest time on SS10. His roll on the following stage cost over four minutes and dropped the Citroen DS3 RRC to ninth spot.

Stage 12, which was due to complete the day, was cancelled by rally organisers due to fog.

This means that with Kubica reaching the end of SS11 after the car was righted, he is still in with a chance of continuing in the rally on Saturday.

Pos Driver             Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1. Jan Kopecky        Skoda                1h05m11.9s
 2. Craig Breen        Sainteloc Peugeot    + 13.1s
 3. Bruno Magalhaes    Delta Peugeot        + 33.9s
 4. Ricardo Moura      Skoda                + 35.5s
 5. Bernardo Sousa     AT Ford              + 36.1s
 6. Jeremi Ancian      Sainteloc Peugeot    + 2m01.0s
 7. Jean Michel Raoux  Sainteloc Peugeot    + 4m06.2s
 8. Miguel Barbosa     Mitsubishi           + 6m01.6s
 9. Robert Kubica      Citroen              + 6m10.4s
10. Luis Rego          Mitsubishi           + 7m07.7s