The rough rally in Sardinia, unfortunately, did not bring any podium finishes for the Škoda drivers in the WRC2 category this time. However, in the challenging conditions of the broken gravel roads, the Fabia rally specials confirmed their robustness, with sixteen cars from the Czech brand finishing in the top twenty of the WRC2 category standings.
As part of the Rally Sardegna, the organizers tried out the new shorter format of the FIA World Rally Championship. All the action was condensed into three days, including the shakedown, which took place on Friday morning and then the whole competition kicked off in the afternoon. A total of 16 special stages covered 266 kilometres, which is around 80 kilometres fewer than usual. However, the shorter the competition, the more challenging it was.
However, Oliver Solberg, who makes no secret of his ambitions to win the WRC2 title, was not able to experience the difficulty of the event in practice. A few days before the start of the rally he suffered a health complication of viral or allergic originand after consulting his doctors, he decided not to start in the competition. Fortunately, the Rally Sardegna was not among his events nominated for championship points, so he may not be too sorry about his absence. Another driver with big ambitions for the Fabia RS Rally2, Gus Greensmith, also did not start in the competition.
Even so, the entry field was very rich in cars of the Czech brand. And the drivers with them were in the forefront, but they were not able to attack the top positions due to various complications. On Friday, Pierre-Louis Loubet/Loris Pascaud were the top of the Škoda crews, despite getting caught in the dust by another competitor who stopped for a wheel change in the third stage. Unfortunately, the crew did not finish the promising rally, as they had to withdraw from the event on Saturday.
After the second leg, the highest-ranking Škoda crew was the Polish duo Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak, who ranked fourth. However, this crew was not lucky either, as they suffered a slow puncture and therefore had to adapt their speed to this situation. Despite this, they still managed to place ahead of the Czech duo Martin Prokop/Michal Ernst and Estonians Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk on Saturday, but they were hot on their heels.
In Sunday's leg, it was the duo Martin Prokop/Michal Ernst who decided to attack the Polish duo in front of them, and the attack was ultimately successful, with Prokop rising to fourth place after Sunday's second special stage. And the Czech crew stayed ahead of their Polish rivals until the finish, although Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak kept attacking until the very end. They won the final 7.1-kilometre-long Power Stage and at the end of the rally they lost only 3.9 seconds to the Czech crew.
Prokop then led the crowd of Škoda cars in the overall standings, as they filled all positions from fourth to tenth. Armin Kremer and his daughter Ella took tenth place in the WRC Master Cup category, which is open to drivers over 50 years of age. It was their second victory in this category this year and thanks to this Kremer is only one point behind another Škoda driver, the Italian Mauro Miel, in the overall standings of this category.
This time, however, there will not be a long break for the crews and teams either, as Rally Poland, returning to the World Rally Championship after five years, starts on the 27th of June. So, it will be interesting to see how the crews will deal with this old-new event. And we surely will be there!
