Soria soars as Clio title edges closer

The Argentinean youngster found himself scrapping with home hero Andrea Mazzocchi on Saturday’s opening leg and trailed the 27-year-old by 7.5sec overnight. 

Soria upped the tempo on Sunday morning, reducing that deficit to just five-tenths of a second after two stages. Mazzocchi then folded under the pressure and crashed out on the very next stage - leaving his rival clear at the top. 

A clean run for Soria across the final loop saw him take the one-make Renault Clio Rally5 series spoils by 38.0sec from Giorgio Cogni. 

He now leads the championship by 37 points from Sergio Fuentes - who finished third overall - with one round to go. Double points will be awarded at Barum Czech Rally Zlín (26 - 28 August), which means only 50 points remain up for grabs.

“I am so happy,” Soria exclaimed. “This was such a challenging rally and I am just delighted that we were able to fight and take the win. 

“Of course, I am really sorry for Andrea. He was driving an amazing rally and setting some fantastic times, but this is part of the game. 

“We have a great lead going to Barum and hopefully we can have another good result there,” he added.

Patrik Herczig ended almost four minutes off the pace in fourth overall with a sizeable advantage over fifth-placed Ghjuvanni Rossi. Turkish driver Emre Hasbay restarted and completed the leaderboard after going off the road on Saturday.