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WRC 2 in Italy: Kopecky cruises home

Jan Kopecky completed Skoda Motorsport's 10th consecutive WRC 2 victory at Rally Italia Sardegna on sunday afternoon.

The Czech driver took the lead in Friday morning's opening speed test and was never again headed during a tough weekend's action on the sun-kissed Mediterranean island.

Driving a Fabia R5, Kopecky won by 2min 16.4sec from Ole Christian Veiby after winning three of Sunday's four speed tests. The young Norwegian claimed fastest time in the other.

Veiby lost 30sec with a puncture on his similar car on Saturday but was delighted with second on the rock-strewn roads.

"I said in advance that if we reached the finish without major problems we would get a good result. And we succeeded. I'm really pleased with second place," said Veiby, who celebrates his 21st birthday next Saturday

Takamoto Katsuta claimed a career-best result in third in a Ford Fiesta R5. The Japanese driver was almost five minutes behind Veiby and nearly four minutes clear of Yohan Rossel.

Pierre-Louis Loubet, driving a Fiesta R5, and Lukasz Pieniazek, in a Peugeot 208 T16, completed the finishers.

Hiroki Arai retired after hitting a rock in this morning's second stage and breaking his Fiesta's R5 steering.

Zdroj: wrc.com