WRC 3
Magnificent Membrado claims breakthrough WRC3 victory on home soil
Spanish youngster Gil Membrado claimed his maiden WRC3 victory on Sunday afternoon, sealing a memorable home win at Rally Islas Canarias.
The 18-year-old went one better than his runner-up finish at Croatia Rally earlier this month, completing a breakthrough April by defeating fellow rising star Tymek Abramowski by 13.7sec.
Abramowski had started Sunday with the upper hand, holding a narrow 2.6sec overnight advantage. But his tyre choice failed to pay off on the opening stage, where he ran two soft and two hard tyres on his Ford Fiesta Rally3 and lost more than 38sec to Membrado, handing the Spaniard the lead.
The Polish driver responded on the following stage, clawing back 11.5sec to keep the fight alive, but the lost time ultimately proved too much to recover. The penultimate stage was cancelled for WRC3 runners, leaving Abramowski with a 24.0sec deficit heading into the Wolf Power Stage.
© WRC
That allowed Membrado to take a measured approach through the final test and safely guide his Fiesta to the finish, securing both his first WRC3 win and a move to the top of the championship standings.
The victory puts Membrado four points clear of reigning champion Matteo Fontana in the WRC3 points race.
Ghjuvanni Rossi completed the podium, marking the Frenchman’s third third-place finish of the season. Germany’s Nicolas Otto finished fourth in just his third WRC3 start, while Santiago Pérez and Raúl Hernández completed the top six.
