The Schio-based team opened its Coppa Rally di Zona 4 campaign with a high-profile weekend, marked by Avbelj’s outright victory and Hakalehto’s one-man show in Rally4 and among the two-wheel-drive runners. Bardolino also delivered strong signals in view of the CIAR and ERC, within a rally that already brought clear technical benchmarks and equally clear ambitions to the surface.
MS Munaretto leaves Rally del Bardolino with a result built around two names above all others, Bostjan Avbelj and Aatu Hakalehto. On the roads around Verona, the Schio-based team shaped its weekend around two performances of real substance, different in context but united by a level of superiority that was clear, tangible and never seriously in doubt.
At the top of the overall standings, it was Bostjan Avbelj and Damijan Andrejka who stole the spotlight, taking victory in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 #2 after a drive handled with authority from start to finish. The win came with seven stage victories out of nine and a final margin of 36.3 seconds, figures that say a great deal about the strength of the performance delivered by the Slovenian crew. For MS Munaretto, it was a result that meant far more than the weekend alone, because Bardolino immediately confirmed a package that already looks highly convincing and offered strong indications ahead of the CIAR, a target Avbelj now approaches with already solid foundations.
If Avbelj set the pace in the overall battle, Aatu Hakalehto and Niklas Heino did exactly the same in their own contest, producing a clear show of strength in the Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 #41. The Finnish driver, making his Bardolino debut in MS Munaretto colours, dominated both the two-wheel-drive category and Rally4, winning every stage in class apart from the last one, where there was simply no sense in taking any further risks with victory already firmly in hand. It was an intelligent performance as well as a fast one, handing the team another major positive and giving Hakalehto a highly convincing start with the ERC in mind as well.
Behind the two standout references, Bardolino also provided further points of interest within the group of Rally2 cars fielded by MS Munaretto. Michele Sambugaro and Ivan Gasparotto, in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 #10, saw the complexion of their rally change above all on special stage 6, where a puncture had a heavy impact on their overall result, pushing them away from a top ten position that the crew had managed to hold for the rest of the event.
It was a more complicated outing for Diego Zantedeschi and Stefano Righetti, competing in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 #8. The Verona driver himself admitted that he was not especially on form, but even so he managed to bring the car home without any major problems, in a weekend to be read more in terms of kilometres completed than pure result. On the final stage, as happened to other crews as well, rain also contributed to pushing the stage times higher.
A broadly similar path was followed by Paolo Boni and Roberto Mometti in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 #18, reaching the finish after a useful and solid rally, even if their performance fluctuated more noticeably over the course of the event. Here too, the most important factor was simply getting to the finish, collecting experience and reference points in a context that, from the very first round, left very little margin for error.
Useful signs for the future also came from the Renault Clio Rally5 #35 of Filippo Sambugaro and Rudy Tessaro, with the former making his debut appearance and above all focused on building confidence, rhythm and continuity at the wheel in the event that opened his season. It was a valuable step, more about construction than outright assessment, but still an important one in beginning to piece together sensations, mileage and driving automatisms.
The only real setback came with the late retirement of Michele Griso and Elia De Guio, competing in the Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 #42, the one genuine sour note in a weekend that otherwise gave MS Munaretto a very solid overall picture.
Taken as a whole, Rally del Bardolino delivered the image of a team capable of asserting itself where it mattered most. Avbelj’s outright dominance, Hakalehto’s one-man show in Rally4 and among the two-wheel-drive runners, and the indications gathered from the rest of the crews all give MS Munaretto a start to the season already rich in substance, speed and perspective.
