CREIGHTON ON TOP AFTER MAD MONTE LERNO DRAMA
William Creighton leads the Junior WRC field overnight after the first full day of action of Rally Italia. The Irishman kicked off his event with an opening super special stage win in the centre of Olbia as the real action got underway on Friday morning.
Laurent Pellier took the opening Wolf Stage Win point on Friday morning to move into third overall as Diego Dominguez was second fastest, taking enough time out of Creighton to move into the lead.
Meanwhile, in the same stage Hamza Anwar’s rally ended before barely beginning, heading too fast into a water splash and dowsing his Fiesta Rally3 Evo with water.
Raul Hernandez became the latest Junior WRC stage winner on stage three, as Pellier chipped away at Domiguez’s lead before the daunting 50km run on Monte Lerno.
The stage lived up to its promise of surprise and tension, thanks to its rough nature, ending Eamonn Kelly’s day early after damaging his suspension.
Creighton, Rensonnet and Pellier all lost huge sums of time in the stage due to tyre changes as Dominguez sailed through with a clean run to emerge at the end of the loop with two minutes in hand.
Roberto Blach was perhaps the biggest surprise of the morning loop. He completed all three stages despite no pace notes due to a faulty microphone in co-driver Mauro Barreiro’s helmet. Blach went second fastest in Monte Lerno without pace notes and rocketed up to third overall in the process.
Stages five and six were cancelled for Junior WRC which left the future stars of WRC with one final dreaded pass of the imposing Monte Lerno stage which lived up again to its chaotic nature.
The conditions of the stage were so tough in fact that every single Junior WRC stopped, some even stopping twice. Raul Hernandez claimed another stage win as the drama unfolded. The biggest loser was Roberto Blach, who went off the road and was unable to finish the stage. Pellier and Rensonnet had to stop to change punctures in the stage twice, with Pellier actually rising to third thanks to Blach’s retirement. Creighton and Dominguez both only stopped once in the stage but Creighton’s speedy tyre changing technique helped him to shoot into the lead, 55 seconds ahead of Dominguez.
William Creighton, Junior WRC leader, said: “Today has been an adventure! A double puncture, lots of mud and so many rocks, it has been crazy! We have got to the end of the first proper day of the rally and that’s the main thing. Getting to the finish is what this rally is all about. There is a long way to go but we have done our best to manage any issues we’ve had so full focus on tomorrow now.”
Video of Josh McErlean by Kerry Motorsport News CONtent pool
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