Driving a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, Lindholm set four fastest times across the day’s six special stages, which allowed him to claim the class lead at the end of Friday by 16.3 seconds.
“We didn’t expect to be leading the WRC2 class after the opening day,” Lindholm admitted.
“But everything went really well for us. A great day overall, and of course, we’re happy to take this position.”
“Especially on the afternoon stages, the balance of the car was excellent. When the grip improves, this car really likes it and performs beautifully. On the first stage of the morning, our rear right tyre slowly deflated, and we lost around ten seconds based on the split times.”
Among the Rally2 drivers, Nikolay Gryazin was slightly faster than Lindholm, but he is not competing for WRC2 points in Sardinia. Lindholm’s main rival in WRC2 is Frenchman Yohan Rossel, while Czech veteran Martin Prokop sits third, followed by Lauri Joona and Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
While Lindholm and Joona enjoyed a solid day, the same can’t be said for Roope Korhonen and Mikko Heikkilä, both of whom crashed out on the second stage of the morning and were forced to retire.
“We had a slightly incorrect pace note and ran wide off the road,” Heikkilä explained.
“It’s really frustrating, and there’s not much to take home from this trip.”
Heikkilä’s rally ended with a heavy crash, but Korhonen is expected to rejoin the event on Saturday.
Like Friday, Saturday’s itinerary includes six special stages. The rally concludes on Sunday.
WRC2 standings after SS6/16:
| POS | Driver | Car | Time |
| 1. | Emil Lindholm | Skoda | 1:13:14.3 |
| 2. | Yohan Rossel | Citroen | +16.3 |
| 3. | Martin Prokop | Skoda | +37.1 |
| 4. | Lauri Joona | Skoda | +38.7 |
| 5. | K. Kajetanowicz | Toyota | +59.7 |
| 6. | Robert Virves | Skoda | +1:07.1 |
| 7. | Leo Rossel | Citroen | +1:10.3 |
| 8. | Roberto Dabra | Skoda | +1:17.3 |
