Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver, William Creighton, delivered a stunning comeback drive at Rally Sweden.

He was dealt a devastating blow on Saturday’s penultimate leg as, after building up a sizeable lead in the Ford Fiesta Rally3 category, he dropped over a minute when his car’s bonnet flew up mid-stage.

Heading into Sunday’s finale with 19.7 seconds to make up with only three stages to do so. He pressed on and was shocked to find he’d reduced that deficit to just 6.1sec, after blitzing Pellier in the day’s opener.

On the next test, he passed his French rival, to carry a 2.7sec advantage into the Wolf Power Stageand, which was extremely tight, but he remained ahead to clinch victory by just six-tenths of a second.

It’s the second-closest Junior WRC finish in history. The closest was at Rally Finland in 2015, when Quentin Gilbert beat Henri Haapamäki by 0.5sec.

"It's been extremely stressful since yesterday afternoon,” Creighton admitted. "I just can't believe we’ve managed it. I didn't lift for the final jump in the last stage, and I've never been so glad!"