Greensmith spearheads WRC2 Škoda sweep

On his debut rally with the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, Greensmith started the final day carrying a comfortable 34.6sec lead over Adrien Fourmaux. He knew that he simply needed to avoid any mistakes in the remaining stages, leaving the rest of the field to battle for second and third places.

And that’s exactly what the Briton did, coming home 32.9sec clear of his nearest challenger after a clean run through the four-stage finale.

“From stage six onwards, this whole rally was under control for me,” said a delighted Greensmith. “When we needed to go faster, we could gap everyone, and after that, it was just about controlling it and not making any mistakes. It's the perfect way to start the year."

Unfortunately for Fourmaux, the Frenchman was the first to suffer on Sunday when he had to stop and replace an auxiliary belt midway through the second stage, Otates. The setback cost over 17 minutes, dropping his Ford Fiesta Rally2 down to seventh.

Emil Lindholm, driving an older Fabia Rally2 Evo, was elevated to second place as a result, with a seemingly comfortable 41.7sec lead over Oliver Solberg. However, Solberg had other plans and completed the Otates stage an impressive 26.6sec faster than the Finn, reducing the gap to just 15.1sec with only two tests remaining.

Solberg seemed to have his breakthrough on the following stage when Lindholm stalled at a junction, dropping more valuable time. But the Swede then ran into trouble of his own, hitting a rock on a fast crest and finishing the stage with his Fabia’s engine running on three cylinders.

Despite the setback, Solberg held onto his podium spot and finished the rally with a more than two-minute buffer over fourth-placed Kajetan Kajetanowicz, grabbing the championship lead in the process. Lindholm secured second, 33.3sec up the road.

Diego Dominguez completed his solo run to secure maximum points in the WRC3 category, as well as finishing 15^th overall. The Paraguayan now tops the standings with his Ford Fiesta Rally3.