Dominated by Punctures | Croatia Rally

The results of this year’s Croatia Rally were significantly influenced by tyre punctures. The asphalt stages of the event were littered with stones, which caused considerable difficulties for the crews. Two Škoda crews finished inside the top ten of the WRC2 category, with Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti securing sixth place as the best-placed duo.

Only a limited number of Škoda drivers nominated Croatia Rally as one of their points-scoring events in the WRC2 championship. Those who did so endured a challenging rally overall. The first all-asphalt event of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship season, and the fourth round of the campaign, was marked above all by punctures.

Croatia was expected to be an asphalt delight. “But there were more and larger stones on the stages than at some gravel rallies,” reported Andreas Mikkelsen after the opening leg. The stones were dragged onto the road primarily by rally cars cutting corners, with conditions deteriorating especially on the second pass of the special stages. The debris caused problems for all competitors; virtually every crew experienced a spin or briefly went off the track. Punctures were frequent, often requiring a tyre change or forcing crews to nurse their cars to the finish. Several Škoda crews were particularly unfortunate in this respect.

Finland’s Emil Lindholm, for example, suffered a puncture already on the opening special stage and thus started his rally from 18th place in the overall WRC2 classification. Roberto Daprà of Delta Rally Team also had to change a wheel on special stage 3. However, Daprà and co-driver Luca Guglielmetti managed to avoid further major issues for the remainder of the rally and secured sixth place in the category. Lindholm encountered another puncture on special stage 9, which dropped him to 11th position at that point. Over the remainder of the event, he recovered to finish seventh, just behind the Italian crew.

The unluckiest contender for a top result was Lindholm’s Toksport WRT team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen. Together with co-driver Jørn Listerud, he lost more than six minutes across three special stages and ultimately finishedjust outside the top ten in WRC2, in 11th position. The fastest local crew, Viliam Prodan and Marko Stiperski, claimed 12th place in the category. Their RB Motorsport Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 was classified 18th overall in the rally, irrespective of category, and the crew expressed great satisfaction with the result.

In contrast, the French crew of Eric Camilli and Thibault De La Haye were left disappointed. They demonstrated the pace of the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 on asphalt during the shakedown by setting the fastest WRC2 time and remained among the front-runners in the rally. However, a minor off on special stage 7 resulted in a puncture and the need to change a wheel. Although the crew recovered from this setback, another slide followed on special stage 15. The subsequent heavy damage to the rear of their Eurosol Racing Team Hungary car forced them to retire from the rally. “A rally best forgotten,” commented Camilli on Saturday evening.