Dennis Radstrom holds on to a narrow 4.4 sec lead over Jan Solans on Saturday: FIA Junior WRC
Alghero, Sardinia (Italy), 15 June 2019: The FIA Junior WRC Championship is set up for a nail-biting conclusion to Rally d’Italia Sardegna as Dennis Rådström holds onto a narrow 4.4-second lead over Jan Solans going into the final day of the rally.
Solans pushed hard from the get-go on Saturday morning and delivered five stage wins in a row, closing down the gap to Rådström from 17.4s to 1.2s by the conclusion of SS14.
The Spaniard was maintaining an impressive and consistent pace while reeling off stage wins and looked set to claim a perfect day together with the rally lead. Rådström, the only current Junior WRC driver to win a Junior WRC gravel event, denied Solans of a perfect streak and claimed the final stage win of the day, extending his lead to 4.4s.
In terms of stage wins and stage win points, Solans now has eight to his name and Rådström five.
Solans took victory on SS12 and a stage point, but Rådström was awarded a notional time stage time identical to the Spaniard’s due to being stuck behind a slower car on the stage. Rådström did not receive a stage point due to his time being an artificial stage time.
Championship leader Tom Kristensson who is yet to win a stage on the rally sits in third position, 1m59.9s adrift from the lead. The Swede kept to his plan of making no mistakes and finishing every stage. The strategy did mean losing a large amount of time on the rough and difficult final stage of the day (SS15) although he has a comfortable margin of 1m02.9s over Raul Badiu in fourth.
Julius Tannert started the day in fifth position, radiator damage during SS10 meant the German had to make a repair between stages and was 22 minutes late for his start time on SS11. He was handed a 3m40s penalty which dropped him to eighth after completing SS11. Tannert bounced back with consistent pace and ended the day sixth, 2m08.1s behind Latvian Martins Sesks.
Fabrizio Zaldivar from Paraguay, the youngest driver in the 2019 FIA Junior WRC field, sits in seventh with a five-minute gap to eight placed Tom Williams. Provided Zaldivar has an issue-free Sunday, he could claim his best finish of the season on the final day of Rally d’Italia.
Dennis Rådström said: “It’s been a typically Sardinian day, a rough one, but we have completed it without problems. I focussed and just made sure I took care of the car. I think we will continue like we have done because this time we have to keep leave our ‘Junior mind’ at home, focus on our job and just go on tomorrow.”
CLASSIFICATION, SECTIONS FOUR AND FIVE:
1.Dennis Rådström / Johan Johansson 01:48:26.2
2. Jan Solans / Mauro Barreiro + 00:04.4
3. Tom Kristensson / Henrik Appelskog + 01:59.9
4. Raul Badiu / Gabriel Lazar + 03:02.8
5. Martins Sesks / Krisjanis Caune + 03:46.3
6. Julius Tannert / Jürgen Heigl + 05:54.4
7. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano + 07:20.3
8. Tom Williams / Phil Hall + 12:23.2
9. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio + 14:58.1
10. Nico Knacker / Anne Stein + 16:49.2
11. Sean Johnston / Alex Kihurani + 42:43.1
