Italy win a stepping stone for Suninen?
Flying Finn Teemu Suninen hopes his WRC 2 victory at Rally Italia Sardegna will boost his chances of a World Rally Car drive in 2017.
Suninen recovered from a puncture after hitting a rock to win the WRC’s support category by 49.6sec in a Skoda Fabia R5. It was his second victory of the year following success in Mexico and the 22-year-old climbed to third in the standings.
It also increased speculation that Suninen was on the radar of manufacturer team bosses for a drive in an all-new World Rally Car next year.
Suninen insisted he had no plans confirmed for 2017 but admitted the Italian win would help his cause.
“I think this win is really important, especially here in Sardinia, because this it is not the easiest rally for me. Hopefully we can do good results to get good things for next year.
“Now I want some good results from the next rallies so we are again back in the title fight,” said Suninen, who trails series leader Elfyn Evans by 12 points having started a rally less.
“To be honest it was a really challenging rally, because there were lots of stones, the stages were really narrow and we really had to keep focused all the time. There was no room for mistakes.”
