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Junior WRC in Italy: Double win for Solans

Nil Solans took a second straight win in the FIA Junior WRC in Italy on sunday afternoon to extend his points lead and secure the series' first prize drives.

The Spaniard, who won the championship opener in Corsica, won a tough Rally Italia Sardegna by 46.1sec after claiming eight speed test victories. He extended his lead to 20 points and sealed the first two prize drives in next year's WRC 2 championship.

"I stuck to my strategy of not pushing too hard as I knew we needed to preserve the car and that worked perfectly. I wasn't trying to push for stage wins but it was a bonus to take those extra eight points," said Solans, who celebrated with a backflip on the finish ramp.

Nicolas Ciamin cemented second in the championship with second overall this weekend. A change to his pacenote system allowed the Frenchman to push harder, resulting in four stage wins.

"I'm still building my experience on gravel so I'm very happy with this result on such a difficult rally," said Ciamin. "We went back to my previous pacenote system for this rally and that worked better for us so I was able to push a little harder."

The final podium place was taken by Julius Tannert, who enjoyed a mistake-free weekend to gain strong points.

Terry Folb finished fourth, after hitting a rock and puncturing a tyre. Swede Dennis Rådström was top rookie in fifth, while Rob Duggan bounced back from Friday's retirement when he hit a gate post to finish sixth.

Sebastian Careaga recovered from a bad start when an engine sensor in his Ford Fiesta R2 was knocked off on Friday. He returned to finish eighth, one place behind Dillon Van Way, who came back after stopping with a damaged oil sump. Miko Niinemäe retired with an injured back after hitting a tree.

Zdroj: wrc.com