Penalties and twists: the conclusion of the Italian Cross Country Championship for Cars sees victory for Trivini Bellini; the start of the Motorally and the progress of the Italian Raid TT, with success for Pietro Degiacomi. Competitors praise the routes and the competitive spirit. The complex structure of the AC Sassari Rally builds towards the spectacular crescendo of the grand finale.
Abstract
The second Stage of the Sardegna Rally Raid starts… at night with a wave of penalties for “waypoint skipping.” The winner of the first car stage, Lorenzo Codecà, was demoted from 1st to 22nd place. The first stage is thus won by the Trivini Bellini cousins (Can-Am).
Changes at the top. On the spectacular route between Monte Acuto and Monte Lerno, in the Moto category Paolo Lucci wins the Special Stage, but Jacopo Cerutti (Aprilia) recovers the gap and takes the lead from former leader Gava. In the Cars category, Cristine Giampaoli Zonca (Polaris) wins the stage and jumps to the top of the overall standings.
Grand Finale in sight. The final stage will be held on Sunday, May 17th (125 km special stage). Pietro Degiacomi (KTM) is on track for overall victory in the Italian Raid TT, while all competitors, enthusiastic about the Sardinian course, face the challenge for the final Trophy.
Olbia, May 16, 2026. The Rally moves towards the low sun of dawn, but the race started at night. Not on the dizzying heights of Gallura, but at the bench of the competition’s tribunal. Tiziano Siviero, the “Designer,” had been clear: maximum attention to the road book, but it wasn’t enough. In the darkness of the competitive limbo between one stage and the next, penalties rained down, mostly for waypoint skipping. The winner of the car stage, for example, Lorenzo Codecà, found 73 “skips” added to his bill, thus going from first to 22nd place. The winner of the first Car Stage, therefore, is the crew of cousins Trivini Bellini, Can-Am. We apologize for the inconvenience. The “errata corrige,” however, is a good pretext to underline that the level of attention and skill of the vast majority of drivers and navigators is very high and largely reassuring. They are all very good, and the error rises to the role of “plot twist” in a Sardegna Rally Raid that keeps its characteristic promise of being “formidable.”
Well, second day, second stage. What will happen, the competitors do not know; they discover it along the way. We are in the landscape and intricate undergrowth of Monte Acuto. At a certain point, you “cross the border,” the climb leads onto the labyrinthine slopes of Monte Lerno. The landscape suddenly “brightens,” a small clearing, the gate leading beyond the dry stone wall, two curves, and the drivers discover the iconic WRC scenario in Sardinia, the jump that made another world of Sport on the Island eternal. In contrast to a first part “enclosed” in the forest, the second opens up onto the fantastic straights of the Rally-Raid. Exclusive to the Sardegna Rally Raid, it must be said with a touch of pride. And it’s all like this, a continuous succession of questions, interpretations, answers to be transmitted through the gas and brake controls to make the sporting difference.
More notes, a Tolstoyan road book, a War and Peace of instructions, the Sardegna Rally Raid presents the bill. In the Moto race, the first to pay is Paolo Lucci, Husqvarna, Team Solarys, who due to a breakdown of his road book tablet remained “isolated” and lost two hours on the first day. The Tuscan partially made up for it today in the second stage, first at the neutralization intermediate and first at the final finish. 6 minutes ahead of Jacopo Cerutti, Aprilia Racing, who in the meantime, however, was the fastest in the second sector, closed the gap from the first day (partly due to a closed gate) and moved into the lead of the Sardegna Rally Raid ahead of former leader Andrea Gava, Kove.
Warning! it’s 6:00 PM and we have learned our lesson. The entire competitive affair will have to be sifted through the sieve of penalty verification (and there are already those who realize they have found their hangmen along the beautiful and difficult track).
Rocambolesquely overturned twice, the Car Race is brought back to order in the second Stage, which sorts out the assessment of values on the field. The “renewed” podium during the night started in the order: Trivini Bellini, Can-Am; Castagnera-Marcon, Can-Am; Benko-Sykora, Taurus. Lorenzo Codecà, one of the favorites, penalized by the nighttime “verdict,” is unlucky: a breakdown removes him from the party. The advance of the Sardegna Rally Raid sends Cristine Giampaoli “GZ” Zonca, Polaris, to the forefront; not by chance with a navigator of the caliber of Pablo Moreno, she wins the Stage and jumps to the lead of the Rally ahead of Martin Benko, Taurus, and Alessandro Trivini Bellini, Can-Am. The Italian crew is on the virtual podium of the Sardegna Rally Raid and, in the meantime, extracts and distills the victory of the second event valid for the Italian Cross-Country Championship, which concludes on Saturday in Olbia. On record, the podium: Trivini Bellini, Castagnera-Marcon, Manfron-Vianello, all on Can Am Maverick X3.
Not to miss anything, the second Stage of the Sardegna Rally Raid, still on the route written by Antonio Scanu, offers space for the first day of the Italian Motorally Championship. These are the Raid TT competitors and those specifically entered for the event, two days of racing, each with its own prize pool of championship points. The matter gets complicated. The Champions are always themselves and in the spotlight, but there is the “intrusion” of the very strong former enduro rider Davide Soreca, Bimota, who bursts into both classifications and is first at the end of the first of the day’s two Special Stages.
The Italian Raid TT is eventful. Thomas Marini and Tommaso Montanari, prominent at the start of the race, burn their chances, respectively due to a fall and a fuel problem, and Davide Soreca cannot maintain his initial pace against the peremptory comeback of Pietro Degiacomi. The KTM Africa Dream rider emerges with his race pace, and the pressure he manages to put on his rivals translates into confirmation of the first stage result. Pietro Degiacomi is first, Soreca second, his brother Paolo Degiacomi, GasGas, third. Alessandro Botturi dominates the twin-cylinder class. With one day to go, Pietro Degiacomi is launched towards the overall victory of the Sardegna Rally Raid, and at the same time collects the double bonus along the road of the complex program of the great Rally-Raid.
Yesterday most of the drivers and navigators said they had fun; today everyone says that… they really had fun. The crescendo of pleasure and satisfaction that “inevitably” springs from Racing in Sardinia outlines a rising curve of appreciation that heralds the grand finale of the Sardegna Rally Raid. Sunday, May 17th, the Rally moves to the south-eastern quadrant of the program with the shortest Stage. The Special Stage is Padru + Terranova, 57 km of transfer, 125 km of Selective Sector, 182 km total. Then the Podium.
Thank You!
Sardegna Rally Raid Press Office
Piero Batini (pbatini@gmail.com)
BIkes Results
Cars Results
Motorally, Raid TT Results
Sardegna Rally Raid. FIA-FIM Rally-Raid World Championship Candidate
Auto: Campionato Italiano Cross Country e SSV
Moto: Campionati Italiani MotoRally e Raid-TT, Europeo Baja
Epicentro: Olbia
Organization:
Automobile Club Sassari and the support of Moto Club Insolita Sardegna
Con il sostegno dell’Automobile Club d’Italia e della Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
www.sardegnarallyraid.com
info@sardegnarallyraid.com
press@sardegnarallyraid.com
Sportity: S2R26FIA, S2R26FIME
© Photo Credits Sardegna Rally Raid
