Suzuki's Michal Kosciuszko came through to take his maiden win in the
FIA Junior World Rally Championship category on the Rally d'Italia Sardegna last weekend, the third round in the series.
Kosciuszko was in contention for the victory throughout and while he ended day one 13.7 seconds off Martin Prokop, the Czech took it a little too cautiously in SS8 and SS9 and with a confident Kosciuszko right on his tail, the Pole passed him.
The duo then went into the repeat loop in the afternoon split by just 1.5 seconds and in the end Kosciuszko finished the second leg just 0.5 seconds in front.
They continued to trade stage wins and seconds on the final day until disaster struck for Prokop when a fuel pressure problem forced him to stop mid-stage in the penultimate test and the 29 minutes he lost pulled him down the order.
Kosciuszko thus took the maximum ten points and moves up to second in the JWRC standings, eight points behind Sebastien Ogier: "It's been a great event, really amazing," the Suzuki man reflected. "We've been fighting for all three days and it was one of the best battles of my career.
"It was difficult last night as we were only half a second ahead of Prokop but I tried not to think about my position and just focus on how I need to drive perfect stages and put some pressure on Martin.
"I'm sorry for him but it's incredible to win here where all the Juniors are competing - it's great competition. And it's my first J-WRC win - let's hope it will be like this in the future."
Alessandro Bettega meanwhile inherited the runners-up spot on his home event - 4.5 minutes adrift in his Renault Clio R3. While he was happy to notch up his best ever result in the JWRC, he was disappointed for Prokop.
"This result is perfect but I would have been happy with third! I feel sorry for Prokop as we're friends," said Alessandro. "Today was really tough but we just took it steadily to avoid any problems. When we saw Martin I honestly felt bad as he deserved second."
Aaron Burkart rounded out the JWRC podium, albeit another six minutes back in his
Citroen C2 S1600 after a difficult rally.
"Of course I'm really happy after day one and then I didn't dare think that I could finish on the podium," he noted. "We hit a stone and we had problems with the car after that and lost a lot of time, it just reacted a bit funny. So I'm very happy to be here. I just need to check the car to see what's going on with it before the next rally."
