A first competitive leg full of action and twists: Latvala retires on the opening stage after a shunt. Lombardo sets the pace and finishes ahead of Smiderle (Subaru) and Perez (Stratos). Six more special stages on the programme tomorrow.
Porto Cervo, 24 April 2026 – A large and enthusiastic crowd welcomed the start of the first leg of the Rally Costa Smeralda Storico from the Molo Vecchio in Porto Cervo, the second round of both the European and Italian Historic Rally Championships. Before the start, a group photo of all crews gathered just steps from the start podium made for a striking image, and as expected, the presence of Jari-Matti Latvala — carrying number 1 on the flanks of his Toyota Celica — drew huge attention. The Finnish driver, reigning European champion, made headlines for both good and bad reasons: just a few kilometres into the opening special stage “Aratena”, he was forced to retire after a shunt, which also caused the stage to be suspended for the four crews running behind him — Lombardo–Consiglio, Pierangioli–Baldini, Fassio–De Montredon and Lubiak–Dakowski. The fastest time across both the European and national rally classifications was set by Andrea Smiderle and Gianni Marchi in their Subaru Legacy, ahead of the four crews who were awarded the same time as Osian Pryce in his Ford Escort RS.
Lubiak in the Porsche 911 RS set scratch on the very fast “Monti” stage, but dropped in the overall standings due to a 1-minute penalty for arriving early at a time control. Smiderle held the lead before eventually surrendering it to Lombardo, who set the fastest time at “Alà dei Sardi” and left Pierangioli in the Ford Sierra 7 seconds back and the Subaru driver 11.8 seconds adrift. Back on “Aratena”, Pryce was the standout performer, moving up to fourth place behind the all-Italian trio, once again led by Smiderle. The battle intensified on the repeat of “Monti”: Lombardo set scratch and returned to the top with a 1.8-second advantage over Smiderle and 2 seconds over Pierangioli, with Pryce fourth at 12.8 seconds. “Alà dei Sardi 2” brought cold comfort for Pierangioli, whose car suffered a mechanical failure, forcing the Sienese driver to retire. Seb Perez and Dale Bowen took their Lancia Stratos to the stage win, becoming the fifth different crew to win one of the six special stages — but it was Lombardo and Consiglio who closed out the first day in the lead, with a 9-second advantage over Smiderle and Marchi. Perez and Bowen took provisional third overall and are also second in the European Championship standings behind Lombardo. Pryce sits fourth, around a dozen seconds ahead of Renato Travaglia and Massimo Nalli in the BMW M3, followed by French crew Bertrand Fassio and Jean-François De Montredon, also in a Porsche 911 RS. Lubiak is paying a heavy price for his time penalty — without it he would be leading — and must settle for seventh place, ahead of Giosuè and Fabio Rizzuto, who are making a fine recovery in their Porsche 911 RS. Adriano Lovisetto and Marco Corda are ninth in their BMW M3, and rounding out the top ten are Enrico Volpato and Samuele Sordelli in the Ford Escort RS, with which they lead Group 3. Group 1 is headed by Giuliano Palmieri and Lucia Zambiasi in the Porsche 911 S. Just outside the top ten in eleventh place is the leading Sardinian crew, Emanuele Farris and Giuseppe Pirisinu in their Porsche 911 SC/RS. Little luck for the much-anticipated Natale Mannino and Giacomo Giannone, who were halted early on by a transmission problem following a jump over a crest. Bad fortune also for Matteo Luise and Melissa Ferro, severely hampered by electrical issues on their BMW M3 in the opening stage. The young local driver Valentino Ledda also ended his rally prematurely in his Peugeot 309 GTI, after just three stages.
In the A112 Abarth Trophy, reigning champions Fabrizio Zanelli and Claudio Zanni won Race 1 ahead of Lorenzo Bergamaschi and Flavio Sella, with Marcello Morino and Massimo Barrera completing the podium.
The rally resumes at 8:15 on Saturday 25 April for a second leg with a higher mileage than the first: 96.68 competitive kilometres across three passes each of “Monti Canu”, “San Pasquale”, and “Aglientu” — the latter universally considered the decisive stage, with its 24.14 kilometres.
In the regularity rally, the “60” category is led by the Verdona brothers in the Peugeot 309 GTI, ahead of Gerosa Brichetto and Bortoluzzi in the Audi quattro and Monza–Nicolini in the Porsche 911. In the provisional “50” category standings, first place goes to Catanzaro–Beneduce in the Honda Civic, while Fiorese–Marcattilj in the Porsche 911 and Gandino–De Marchi in the Fiat Uno 70 are tied in second place with a 4-penalty margin.
