JWRC: Kosciuszko breaks duck in Sardinia.

Suzuki's Michal Kosciuszko came through to take his maiden win in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship category on the Rally d'Italia Sardegna last weekend, the third round in the series.

Kosciuszko was in contention for the victory throughout and while he ended day one 13.7 seconds off Martin Prokop, the Czech took it a little too cautiously in SS8 and SS9 and with a confident Kosciuszko right on his tail, the Pole passed him.

The duo then went into the repeat loop in the afternoon split by just 1.5 seconds and in the end Kosciuszko finished the second leg just 0.5 seconds in front.

They continued to trade stage wins and seconds on the final day until disaster struck for Prokop when a fuel pressure problem forced him to stop mid-stage in the penultimate test and the 29 minutes he lost pulled him down the order.

Kosciuszko thus took the maximum ten points and moves up to second in the JWRC standings, eight points behind Sebastien Ogier: "It's been a great event, really amazing," the Suzuki man reflected. "We've been fighting for all three days and it was one of the best battles of my career.

"It was difficult last night as we were only half a second ahead of Prokop but I tried not to think about my position and just focus on how I need to drive perfect stages and put some pressure on Martin.

"I'm sorry for him but it's incredible to win here where all the Juniors are competing - it's great competition. And it's my first J-WRC win - let's hope it will be like this in the future."

Alessandro Bettega meanwhile inherited the runners-up spot on his home event - 4.5 minutes adrift in his Renault Clio R3. While he was happy to notch up his best ever result in the JWRC, he was disappointed for Prokop.

"This result is perfect but I would have been happy with third! I feel sorry for Prokop as we're friends," said Alessandro. "Today was really tough but we just took it steadily to avoid any problems. When we saw Martin I honestly felt bad as he deserved second."

Aaron Burkart rounded out the JWRC podium, albeit another six minutes back in his Citroen C2 S1600 after a difficult rally.

"Of course I'm really happy after day one and then I didn't dare think that I could finish on the podium," he noted. "We hit a stone and we had problems with the car after that and lost a lot of time, it just reacted a bit funny. So I'm very happy to be here. I just need to check the car to see what's going on with it before the next rally."

Further down the order Shaun Gallagher came in fourth and he had been in front of Burkart until he picked up a puncture on the final day in SS14, which cost him over three minutes. In the end he finished just under 30 seconds behind the German.

Current championship leader Sebastien Ogier had to settle for fifth place and after dominating the first two rounds, his luck turned in Sardinia.

Ogier struggled for traction on the opening day and when he eased off to pass the stranded vehicle of a fellow competitor on SS4 he picked up a puncture. Although he could continue he later hit a bank which damaged his steering and transmission, preventing him completing the rest of the day's stages and resulting in a 15-minute penalty.

Re-starting under the SupeRally on day two the Citroen star pushed as hard as he dared in the rough conditions and gradually worked his way back up the leaderboard to score four points.

"It's a good recovery, that's sure," said the Frenchman, who is backed by the Equipe de France FFSA. "But it's not the same when you are just fighting to score a few points rather than the win. At the start of the rally that was my aim, but we soon had to re-adjust our expectations, which was a valuable lesson too."

Of the rest Stefano Albertini was sixth on only his second WRC event, despite electrical and brake problems, while Patrik Sandell came in seventh.

Sandell had finished day one in third, but had to retire on day two in SS8 with a broken driveshaft. Although he re-started on Sunday, with 25 minutes of penalties, scoring a podium result was no longer an option and so the 2006 JWRC champion had to settle for two consolation points.

Han Weijs Jr rounded out the top eight and picked up the final point in his Citroen C2-R2 MAX, with Jaan Molder ninth followed by Prokop, Andrea Cortinovis, Gilles Schammel and Francesco Fanari.

"Naturally, it's a big disappointment," said Prokop. "We needed to win in order to make up for our mistake in Mexico, and right up until the end it was looking possible. We had a really fantastic battle for the lead throughout the rally and I would have accepted second after such a strong fight, but I really wanted to win and it's frustrating for my rally to end up this way."

In total 13 JWRC runners were classified at the end of the round, with four failing to finish - namely Florian Niegel and Milos Komljenovic, who both crashed out on day two, while Simone Bertolotti and Kevin Abbring retired in the final leg, the former going off the road in SS16, while the latter suffered a broken steering arm, also in Sorilis.

The Junior World Rally Championship now continues at the start of August, when the circus heads to Finland.