WRC2
Greensmith grabs WRC2 lead after late Sardinia drama
Gus Greensmith will take a slender 2.2sec WRC2 lead over Roope Korhonen into Saturday at Rally Italia Sardegna after a dramatic final stage turned Friday’s order on its head.
Teemu Suninen had looked firmly in control for much of the opening day, carrying the category lead from Thursday evening and steadily building his advantage across Sardinia’s punishing gravel stages.
The Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver remained 9.3sec clear of Emil Lindholm after SS6, despite Korhonen setting the fastest time on the afternoon pass of Su Filigosu – Lerno.
But Suninen’s rally unravelled on the final Monti di Alà – Sa Conchedda – Lerno test when he stopped 4.8km into the stage to change a damaged tyre. The roadside intervention cost more than two minutes and dropped the Finn to seventh in WRC2, 2min 41.0sec from the lead.
That opened the door for Greensmith, who had quietly kept himself in contention throughout a day when avoiding trouble proved every bit as important as outright speed.
© WRC
The Briton and co-driver Jonas Andersson brought their Toyota through Friday’s finale third-fastest in WRC2 to take the overnight lead on 1hr 29min 08.3sec.
Korhonen was just one tenth quicker on SS7 and ends the day only 2.2sec behind his fellow Toyota driver, setting up a tantalising fight for Saturday.
The Finn had already signalled his intentions by winning SS6, and his late charge transformed what had been a 19.4sec deficit to Suninen after the morning loop into a genuine battle for victory.
© WRC
Behind the leading pair, Emil Lindholm holds third in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, albeit 1min 17.9sec from the front after sustaining tyre damage on the final test.
Defending Sardinia WRC2 winner Roberto Daprà is fourth and 1min 49.9sec back, with Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Pablo Sarrazin completing the top six.
Newly crowned WRC2 champion Robert Virves endured a bruising day of his own. The Estonian was delayed by tyre damage on two stages, but responded emphatically by winning SS7 by 6.1sec from Korhonen. He ends Friday eighth in the category, 2min 54.9sec adrift.
Léo Rossel was another casualty of the rough conditions, retiring for the day after a hard landing caused a mechanical problem on SS3.
