On tempo alone, Andrea Crugnola would’ve gained his third Rally di Roma Capitale in a row within the European Rally Championship.
However a 20-second time penalty, for a two-minute late check-in to SS11, meant the Italian champion solely completed fifth, with Giandomenico Basso rising the winner.
Championship chief Miko Marczyk was the shock early chief in his Škoda, however an overshoot on stage 4 allowed the anticipated order to ascertain itself.
Citroën pilot Crugnola has dominated this rally for every of the previous two years, and duly took the lead when Marczyk slipped up. However he wasn’t capable of disappear, with Basso simply 3.3s behind in a single day in his Fabia RS Rally2.
Basso then took the lead after SS9 of 13, just for Crugnola to hit again and retake the lead. Seemingly on his option to an ERC and Rally di Roma hat-trick, Crugnola was then all of a sudden dumped again to fifth, 17.3s off the lead, when he was hit together with his 20s penalty.
