WRC 2
Daprà storms to shock Sardinia WRC2 win amid final-day carnage
Roberto Daprà delivered a stunning upset on home soil at Rally Italia Sardegna, surviving a chaotic final leg to clinch his maiden WRC2 victory in dramatic fashion on Sunday.
The ACI Team Italia youngster began the day fifth in class and looked an outside bet for a podium, let alone victory. But a chain of misfortune for the frontrunners turned the leaderboard on its head, opening the door for an unlikely triumph.
Long-time leader Emil Lindholm was the first to falter, crashing out on SS14 after overshooting a braking point over a crest and beaching his Škoda. That promoted Lauri Joona to the lead, only for the Finn to suffer a rear-left puncture on the very next stage.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz, also in the podium mix, encountered the same fate on SS15. In a matter of kilometres, Daprà vaulted from third to first - but the drama wasn’t over yet.
Polish star Kajetanowicz finished a close second
© WRC
Holding a slender 4.1sec lead over Kajetanowicz heading into the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage, Daprà spun in the early kilometres and appeared to have thrown it away. But the Italian regrouped and delivered a gutsy final push to snatch victory by 5.8sec, sparking jubilant celebrations at the finish in Olbia.
"I am really proud of myself and for all of my team that we won our first rally here - it's amazing," Daprà beamed. "When things go well and you have good people around you, if the result needs to come it will come itself. That's what happened here."
Martin Prokop completed the podium a further 5.1sec behind, while Jan Solans and Romet Jürgenson rounded out the top five. Jürgenson, who carried a 20sec penalty from earlier in the rally, fell just 8.2sec short of Solans in the fight for fourth. Joona, meanwhile, tumbled to sixth after his tyre woes.
Daprà also celebrated victory in the WRC2 Challenger category while Mexican driver Miguel Granados took the WRC Masters Cup spoils.
