Rally Italy Sardinia has become prolific for its final day dramas. Time and time again, powerstage curveballs have changed the fate of the rally.
It wasn’t shown on live television – but the same thing happened again in 2025, down in the lower classes.
Roberto Daprà started the final day of his home WRC round looking over his shoulder, worried a top five finish would be taken from his grasp. He ended it standing atop the podium.
How?
Darpà started Sunday fifth in WRC2 but ended it first
Daprà was right to be looking backwards rather than forwards on Sunday. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and the promised land of a podium finish was over a minute away, while within half a minute deficit were a trio of Junior WRC champions: Robert Virves, Romet Jürgenson and Jan Solans.
“I just hoped to be in sixth or seventh position like in Portugal, something like that,” said Daprà.
Keeping expectations tempered has been a key requirement of Daprà’s time in WRC2. He was thrown in the deep end by ACI Team Italia a year and a half ago: having won the ERC4 title in a front-wheel-drive Peugeot 208 Rally4, Rally3 and Junior WRC was skipped entirely in favor of lining up in Monaco’s Casino Square with a Rally2 Škoda. Before his WRC2 debut he’d only competed in a four-wheel-drive car once, at Rally Monza in late 2023.
As a consequence he’s mostly flown under the radar since his debut. Fifth on the Monte this year had been his best finish to date. But on the final day in Sardinia, it was finally time to undertake a different type of learning on the job: push like hell and try not to bin the car.
He put the hammer down: third-fastest on Sunday’s opening stage pulled him clear of Solans and Virves. Then the chaos began to unfold.
Daprà could feel people weren't believing in his chances - but that didn't stop him
Emil Lindholm had been in position to simply cruise to a comfortable victory. Instead, on the first pass of Porto San Paolo, he went too fast over a jump and failed to make the subsequent right-hander, sticking his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 into a ditch and ending his rally. On the next stage, Lauri Joona punctured and Kajetanowicz made an error that cost him a minute.
All the while Daprà had kept his head down and carved half a minute out of Martin Prokop to take a position. He’d been gifted another three by Lindholm, Joona and Kajetanowicz.
“When we passed Prokop, I started to think – maybe we can be on the podium,” said Daprà, having taken that position with two stages to go. After the penultimate stage it dawned on him: he was leading his home rally with one stage to go.
The (power)stage was set: Daprà would start with 5.8s in hand over three-time European champion Kajetanowicz and 10.9s on Prokop, a one-time Junior WRC champion with 142 WRC starts to his name.
Half an hour earlier, Sébastien Ogier had carried too much momentum through a left-hander and half-spun at the following right-hander, having to reverse.
Daprà, starting after his rivals, arrived at that same turn and made the same error. With only a 5.8s lead to work with, the lead was gone. He was, momentarily, rattled. But a year and a half of learning in WRC2 before this moment was finally put to use.
“It was strange,” said Daprà. “I was really stressed and just tried to be calm.
“I disconnected my brain and said ‘we need to do it’. It was a rollercoaster: we can do it, we cannot do it.
“The team was looking at the splits on our tracker in the service park and when they saw we were down 5s to Kajto, they started not believing.
“I started pushing like hell. I said: ‘Either we win or we crash’.”
After the spin, the lead gap had narrowed to 0.3s. At the finish you could tell Daprà was sending it: the powerstage finished with a jump and his Škoda leapt further than some of the Rally1 cars, keeping the throttle pinned right to the very end.
After the fluorescent blue and yellow Fabia came crashing back down to earth, Daprà was straight in navigator Luca Guglielmetti’s ear: “I was asking to my co-driver,” said Daprà, “what are you expecting? But nobody believes.”
After disconnecting his brain, Daprà licked the stamp and was rewarded with a win
After ‘disconnecting his brain’, Daprà had gone a second per kilometer faster than Kajto to the finish line. Between his spin and the finish line, no-one – not even title contenders Oliver Solberg, Nikolay Gryazin or Yohan Rossel – had been faster than Daprà.
A stunned Daprà still hadn’t gotten his head around what had happened by the time he reached the final time control.
“I never started the rally thinking I would win,” he said. “I just give 110% of myself every time and if the result arrives, then it will arrive itself.
“All the [top] drivers in WRC2 have been driving for many years. If Oliver Solberg is first by one minute and he still wins stages, that means he is sure of what he is doing. We are just trying to build our pace as all the times we did this weekend were under control.”
The unexpected victory is a feel-good moment – undoubtedly Daprà’s career highlight to date. But what’s potentially more important in the long-term was that powerstage mistake – and the pace he unlocked when he chose to forget about learning and put everything on the line.
When you know you can do it once, you know you can do it again. Next time Daprà pops up towards the higher end of the WRC2 standings, it may not be quite so unexpected.
