The 2005 FIA European Rally Championship season ended last weekend with the 40th Rally Antibes – Cote d’Azur, the ninth round of the series, and the factory Fiat crew, Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta, ended the event in second overall position, after another very strong performance by the Veneto-based duet.
 

The second and third leg of the rally, which was held around South East region of France, saw a continuous swapping of positions between Basso and Simon Jean Joseph, the latter backed by the works assisted Renault Clio Team Europe, for second place overall, while the first position was being held by Cedric Robert who was at the wheel of another semi-works Renault Clio Super1600, although the closing stages were mostly won by Basso, who in the process reduced the deficit down to just 7.9”. In fact Giandomenico finished the rally as the driver who won the greatest amount of timed special stages with seven best times – SS6, SS7, SS10, SS13, SS14, SS16 and SS17 – and he fended off the outgoing 2004 European Rally Champion, right up to the final kilometre.

The final leg of the rally was especially appreciated by not only the hordes of local French fans but also by the many Italian fans who had come from the Piedmont and Liguria provinces to watch special stages which were being run on the same tracks of the World Rally Championship's most mythical round - the Rally Monte Carlo. In fact SS14 and SS17 ran from the Peira Cava village, crossing at its highest point above sea level on the epic Col de Turini, before running down to La Bollene for a total of distance of 18,33 kilometres, a typical Monte Carlo stage which is always overcrowded with fans who come to see heroic drives from the top WRC pilots.

Several supporters also had in the back of their minds the fact that on the first round of the 2006 World Rally Championship, the Rallye Monte Carlo, which is expected to see the worldwide competitive debut of the brand new Fiat Punto Super2000, and that fact itself meant that the Rallye Antibes this year - for Fiat - was also to serve as a valuable learning process.

Basso's and Dotta's season can be summed up as a very positive one, not least because it has seen the first full participation in the European series by an official Fiat team after an absence of several years. The Procar-Fiat Abarth Team Europa works outfit has contested all nine rounds, claiming two overall victories (the Rally Bulgaria and Greek Eko Rally) and three second places (the Czech Barum Rally, Turkish Fiat Rally, and French Rallye Antibes) ending the season just three points adrift of Renato Travaglia, who has previously won the European Championship twice, driving more powerful machines than his mount this year, an Autorel-run Renault Clio Super1600. “It has been an unique experience," said Basso at the finish line in Antibes, "we raced in rallies and on roads we had never seen before and we got exceptional results. In our humble opinion, we only missed a bit of luck, but up to the last round of the season, we fought to win the European Championship against very experienced drivers like Travaglia and Jean Joseph”.

An excellent performance was also turned in by Paolo Andreucci and co-driver Anna Andreussi, who in another factory-run Fiat Punto Super1600 ended the Rally Antibes in fourth overall position. In contrast, nothing but bad luck was encountered by the two French youngsters who were lined up with the Fiat team, Yoann Bonato, went off road during the first leg after setting some very competitive times, and Eric Codaccioni, who was stopped by mechanical issues.