Roberto Daprà won his first ever European Rally Championship event at home at Rally di Roma Capitale, as WRC2 rival Teemu Suninen moved into the championship lead.
Suninen finished second to Daprà in Rome, 13.8s behind the fellow Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 with Boštjan Avbelj falling just half a second short of stealing second from the Finn.
Round three of the 2026 ERC, Rally di Roma attracted a strong entry of 45 Rally2 cars ahead of its anticipated World Rally Championship berth in 2027.
However it was Italian Daprà who set his stall out early, winning the pre-event qualifying stage on Friday by half a second over Suninen.
After Friday evening’s Colosseum superspecial, won by Lancia’s Yohan Rossel, it was two-time Rally di Roma Andrea Crugnola who established authority on Saturday morning.
Having missed out on victory to Giandomenico Basso last year due to a 10s time penalty, the Lancia pilot had a score to settle and built himself a 5.8s advantage at first service.
Crugnola had the pace to snare another ERC Rally di Roma victory, but fell short
Daprà applied the pressure on SS5 to close to just 1.7s adrift before Crugnola faltered on the day’s penultimate test, over committing to a right hander and running his Lancia off into a ditch.
That released Daprà into a 20.2s lead by the end of Saturday which he duly defended across Sunday’s final four stages to claim a second international win in Italy following his WRC2 success in Sardinia last year.
“We are very happy!” exclaimed Daprà. “It was demanding today, very stressful, but we managed to win. It was very hard before the last stage because anything can happen and this morning we bent a rim so I was a bit scared about punctures, but thanks so much to all the people who are believing in me. After last week in Greece we deserve this big emotion and I am very happy.”
Second place for Suninen was hard-fought, particularly with Avbelj charging behind. The Italian began the powerstage 6.9s behind Suninen but ended it just 0.5s adrift, forced to settle for third while Suninen collected his first ERC podium of the season.
“Oi, oi, oi, that was close!” Suninen smiled. “I tried to have a bit of a clever drive but immediately then you start to lose time. We scored really good points and I have to say massive thanks to the team, working with them is like going to the supermarket. Anything that I want, they can deliver.”
Suninen’s result moves him into the lead of the championship by four points over Basso, who finished fourth in Rome – just 3.2s adrift of Avbelj.
Suninen is the new championship leader following his first ever ERC podium
French champion Yoann Bonato completed the top five but fellow Frenchman Arthur Pelamorgues had looked set for the position in his Hyundai before an accident on SS10 of 11.
Reigning Junior WRC champion Mille Johansson finished sixth, making it five Fabia RS Rally2s in the top six, ahead of Pablo Sarrazin (Citroën), Andrea Mabellini (Lancia) and Rossel who only placed ninth on Lancia Corse HF’s fact-finding mission.
“I hope to come back next year to play for the win,” said the Frenchman, who finished one spot ahead of reigning ERC champion Miko Marczyk.
Team-mate Nikolay Gryazin also competed in Rome, running inside the top five on Saturday before his gearbox broke.
Simone Tempestini led the MRF Tyres charge in his Škoda, finishing 13th overall amid a highly competitive field. Erik Cais was also in the mix in his Hyundai but was forced to retire on Saturday with a fuel pump issue.
Davide Pesavento won the Junior ERC category in a Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF, 32.1s of Opel’s round one winner Timo Schulz.
The 2026 ERC season resumes in Poland on July 24-27, the week between the WRC’s visits to Estonia and Finland.
