Sunday: a battle to the cent
The protagonists of Sunday were the “magnificent” four: Breen, Crugnola, Andolfi and Basso, the latter author of excellent times by also winning four of the seven tests of the day but delayed in the general classification due to a puncture. Always there, a step away from the Crugnola-Ometto summit who seem to have found a good feeling with their i20 R5. But, the winner of the 2019 edition was also confirmed in 2021. Craig Breen won three tests throughout the rally, managing the gap from his opponents well and finishing with a 4.7-second advantage over his teammate Crugnola. Also of note is the excellent performance of Andolfi who, although Ligurian, did not have much experience on these roads. For him, together with his fellow passenger Savoia a good third place overall.
What happened at the last time check
The rankings after the last special stage gave Breen an advantage of 4.7 seconds over Crugnola, but the race ends after the navigator delivers, at the correct minute, the time card at the last time control, in this case in Sanremo.
In the city of flowers, Breen arrived to deliver the table one minute late, which is equivalent to 10 seconds of penalty, variable which made sure that the victory went to Crugnola. But the organization did not accept this possible team game (it is not a novelty in rally team games of the genre in a championship perspective), however, with a circular it was communicated to all the crews that the last time check would be canceled. (which sometimes happens due to traffic problems or other variables), thus returning the victory to the Irish Breen.
Two-wheel drive and one-make
Among the rivals of the two-wheel drive Cir, the victory went to the brothers Andrea and Giuseppe Nucita in the official Peugeot 208 Rally 4, who lost several positions in the power stage and after a good comeback on the main rivals, they won over their rivals Christopher Lucchesi Jr together to Chiara Lombardi in a twin car.
In the first of the Italian Junior Rally Championship staged with eleven crews, all at the wheel of the Ford Fiesta Rally 4, where the top step of the podium went to Alessandro Casella together with Rosario Siragusano. A good race that of the Under 27 squadron of Aci Team Italia which saw Mattia Vita and Max Bosi in the lead for most of the time. Finally, precisely on the 20 kilometers of the last test, the Lucca rider was unable to take his advantage to the end and must be satisfied with the second overall. Third position for Emanuele Rosso with Andrea Ferrari happy despite some brake problems encountered throughout the race.