In a rally of attrition, Juho Hanninen came through unscathed to win the Rally d'Italia-Sardegna. Local driver Paolo Andreucci beat Jan Kopecky to finish second while Theirry Neuville finished fourth in only his thrid IRC event. Bruno Magalhães came in fifth with Finnish driver Teemu Arminen sixth.
Peugeto UK driver Kris Meeke was fighting Hanninen for the lead until SS10, where Meeke put the 207 S2000 into a tree, 15 mins into the stage. Kronos Racing boss Marc van Dalen refused to blame Meeke for the accident, stating that the defending champion was 'blameless'.
“When you have a fight for two days like this and you drive at a minimum of 100 per cent, things like this can happen, this is rally and we have to accept this,”
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It could have been Kris, Juho [Hänninen], Paolo Andreucci or [Jan] Kopecký. They are all driving like crazy but Kris was the unlucky one.” said van Dalen.
Meeke's Peugeot understeered off the road on a fast left-hander, straight into a tree. The Peugeot came to rest on its side against the tree. Both Meeke & Nagle were uninjured.
The same could not be said for Guy Wilks. The Skoda UK driver slid off the road at a very fast section of road. The car hit a large rock & bounced into the air, landing & then carrying on through some rocky undergrowth. Navigator Phil Pugh was uninjured, but Guy broke two vertabrae in his lower back.
Double Junior World Champion P-G Andersson had fought his way up to seventh after a puncture early on Saturday, until a transmission failure put him out for good.
Burcu Çetinkaya restarted on Sunday after a wheel parted company with the car on Saturday. Sebastian Ogier did not restart on Sunday after an overheating problem in his 207 S2000 stopped him on Saturday's first stage.
Harry Hunt won the IRC 2WD Cup section of the rally in his Fiesta R2. The young Briton claimed the lead when Kaspar Koitla rolled out of the rally. Hunt finished 6 mins ahead of Colin R Smith in his Civic Type R.
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