Nikolay Gryazin has withdrawn from next week’s Rally Serras do Fafe, the opening round of the European Rally Championship.
Russian driver Gryazin was set to enter the first round of the ERC season two weeks after his outing on Rally Sweden, where he had been running into the podium places until crashing into a snowbank.
The 2018 ERC Junior Under 28 champion has now withdrawn his entry from the Fafe event, with “personal reasons” the official reason for his entry being dropped as confirmed to DirtFish by WRC Promoter.
Russian and Belarusian drivers remain eligible to compete in FIA-sanctioned events where individual national motorsport federations permit them to do so.
FIA unveils Russian/Belarusian terms
The governing body requires participants from the two countries to sign commitment to continue competing
Multiple national federations have blocked drivers with Russian and Belarusian-issued licenses from competing on their soil, though the Portuguese federation FPAK is not one of them.
FPAK did not respond to a request to comment from DirtFish regarding the status of Russian drivers competing in Portugal earlier this week.
One Russian driver remains on the Fafe entry list for now, ERC3 driver Dmitry Feofanov in a Ford Fiesta Rally3. He competes under a Latvian license.
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo pairing Alexander Rzhevkin and Yuriy Kulikov have also withdrawn from Rally Serras do Fafe, though said crew was not registered to score championship points.
