Autosportfoto

Rovanperä takes comfortable win

Kalle Rovanperä secured his second career WRC 2 victory in dominant fashion by winning Dayinsure Wales Rally GB by 1m 34.2sec on sunday.

The 18-year-old won Thursday's rally opening Tir Prince super special and didn't relinquish the lead for the rest of the event - winning 15 of the 23 stages in his Skoda Fabia R5.

Rovanperä's Skoda Motorsport team-mate Pontus Tidemand finished a distant second after clipping a bank and breaking his car's right-rear suspension on SS20 - Gwydir 1. He lost 12.2sec on the stage but completed a roadside repair and continued to the end of the rally.

He banked 18 points in his title fight with team-mate Jan Kopecký and cut his deficit to the Czech to 14 points. The next move in the title duel will have a lot to do with Skoda, which is yet to confirm the pair's programme for the remaining two rounds.

Ford Fiesta R5 driver Gus Greensmith had hoped to take advantage of Tidemand's woes, but he ran out of stages to close the gap to the Swede and ended 39.4sec adrift in third, to take his fourth podium of the season.

Finishing just off the podium was a hard-charging Jari Huttunen. The Hyundai development driver closed on Greensmith during Sunday's stages and went quickest on the final test, but came up 43.2sec short.

Stéphane Lefebvre ended fifth in his Citroën C3 R5. The Frenchman had a clean run through the last five stages to secure his best result since his third-place at Vodafone Rally de Portugal in May.

Sixth went to Lukas Pieniazek in his Fabia R5. The Pole was promoted a position in the morning after Pierre-Louis Loubet was forced to retire his Hyundai i20 R5 on the first run of the Great Orme Llandudno test.

Zdroj: wrc.com