Juho Hannin꧟en has strengthened his grip on the Intercontinental Rally Challenge drivers' title with his second victory of the season on Rally d'Italia-Sardegna.

Driving a factory Skoda Motorsport-run Fabia, the Finn took a slender lead on the rally's ninꦚth stage and pulled clear when Kris Meeke, his closest pursuer, crashed heavily on stage ten. The accident was captured live on Eurosport, which covered four stages of the sun-coated gravel event as they happened.

Hanninen's win means he has finished on the podium on all five rounds of the IRC so far th🐓is season and is now 11 points to the good in the battle for the coveted drivers' accolade. With team-mate Jan Kopecky taking third behindဣ Peugeot driver Paolo Andreucci, Skoda now tops the manufacturers' table by 34 points.

Andreucci started Sunday's six stages 7.4s clear of fellow Peugeo🧸t runner Meeke, but lost more than 20 seconds with a sluggish run through the first Coiluna stage after opting to run a soft suspension set-up on his Peugeot Sport Italia 207, which resulted in a handling imbalance. After dropping to third, Andreucci moved to second when Meeke crashed.🎀 However, he then had to stave off Kopecky's advances over the final two runs. He prevailed by 2.6s after setting the fastest time on the last Monte Olia run.

Kopecky had been playing catch up after a moment on stage three when he inflicted sizable damage to his Fabia's front-right corner strik🌼ing a rock, which necessitated a rapid overhaul in service by his mechanics.

Meeke was 3.6s behind Hanninen when he unders🐎teered off the road on a sweeping left-hand bend. His Peugeot UK 207 ended up on its side and would go no further. It was a disappointing end to a🐠n impressive drive by the defending IRC champion, who claimed two stage wins during the course of the event.

Thierry Neuville secured a notable fourth overall in his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 on his first gravel event in 🐲a four-wheel drive car. It was also the first time the 21-year-old has finished an IRC round in three attempts having crashed out on his last two outingsꩲ.

P-G Andersson had fought his way up to seventh place only for a transmission failure to groundღ his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X two kilometres from the end of stage 10 when he was closing on sixth-placed Teemu Arminen for the honour of finishing as the lead🧸ing driver in a conventional Group N car.

Arminen admitted to adopting a more cautious approach on Sunday in order to secure a f🐻inish in the Italian Gravel Rally Trophy, which rewarded double points in S෴ardinia. The Finn's conservatism in his Subaru Impreza ultimately let in Bruno Magalhaes for fifth overall, while Arminen clinched the Italian Gravel title with two rounds remaining when Mauro Trentin retired on the last stage.

Driving for Peugeot Sport Portugal, Magalhaes incurred 2m30s of time penalties for his late departure from midday service in Simaxis on Saturday while his mechanics rectified a major brake problem. He faced the prospect of carving through the loose surface gravel on day two by virtue of starting first on the road but drove without error to battle back to fifth place and maintain his 100 peꦡr cent scoring record.

Luigi Ricci recovered from a handful of punctures to claim seventh in his Impreza with Daniele Batistini landing the final IRC d🧔rivers' championship point in eighth overall.

Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, 20, restarted on Sunday after roll♌ing into retirement on Saturday's fir🌠st stage and set a succession of top five times in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta on his first of seven planned IRC appearances.

Burcu Cetinkaya also returned to action on Sunday following her retirement on Saturday when a wheel worked ღloose. The 29-year-old Peugeot Sport Turkey driver ༺used the leg to gain more experience of her 207 S2000 and its Yokohama tyres.

Although his 207 was restored to full working order following his off on stage three on Saturday, Saudi Arabian Yazeed Al Rajhi elected 🔴not to take the restart. Sebastien Ogier failed to go beyond Saturday's first stage when his Peugeot's engine overheated.

Briton Harry Hunt secured the IRC 2WD Cup laur🔯els on his return to the series for the first time since Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo in January. Driving a Ford Fiesta R2, Hunt had trailed Estonian Kaspar Koitla but moved ahead when the Honda Civic Type R driver rolled on stage eight while leading comfortably. Colin R Smith made it a British one-two in his Civic, despite spending more than six minutes stuck on a bank on Saturday.