Fighting on two
fronts - the
three Fiat factory drivers' this weekend have completed
the first legs of the two of rallies they are running
in.
Mirco Baldacci is busy competing in the eighth and final
round of 2005 FIA Junior World Rally Championship, the
Rally of Catalunya-Costa Daurada. After the Friday legs
six special stages, Mirco is currently standing in
second place on the JWRC leaderboard, after a very
exciting performance, which saw him swapping fastest
stages times with the other two challengers, local ace
Dani Sordo, and Briton Guy Wilks, respectively at the
wheel of a Citroen Customer programme C2 Super1600 and
the new Suzuki works teams Swift Super1600, both who
are battling for the 2005 Junior title, although the
Spaniard has a much greater chance of claiming the
crown, due to the eight point advantage he holds in the
general Junior classification, and his excellent
reputation on sealed surfaces.
The Junior Fiat
factory crew, Mirco Baldacci and Giovanni Bernacchini,
at the wheel of the Fiat Punto Abarth Super1600,
however, arrived on the Iberan peninsula after a eagerly
and long awaited victory at Rally of France - Tour de
Corse, with much the same purpose: to demonstrate that
they are really starring actors of the Junior series,
apart a multitude of bad luck, which has seen them
forced to abandon several high placed classifications
during the earlier rounds.
In fact the
first very stage, the 25.43 km long Querol encounter,
was fiercely battled out, with Sordo in first position,
Wilks at only 0.1 seconds and Baldacci third at only
0.4". The first loop of stages ended with the El
Montmell timed section, where Sordo scored the best time
and Baldacci was third again at 57. During the next
loop Baldacci claimed the second fastest time on the
Vilaplana 1 stage, at 68 from the Spaniard, while the
second timed section, the 28.35 km Pratdip
stage, proclaimed Baldacci as the fastest driver, with
Sordo in second position at 18, and Wilks third at 33.
The leg ended with another quick loop of two stages: the
Querol 2 stage, which was won by Wilks, with Baldacci
second at 11 and Sordo in third place at 29, while the
last section was neutralised, because the Subaru Impreza
WRC, driven by official driver Stephane Sarrazin caught
fire on the stage, after rolling out. The fireball
obstacle did let Sordo and Wilks complete the stage,
although the Junior drivers, Suzuki's Kosti Katajamaki
and Fiat's Mirco Baldacci included, were forced to
receive a notional time from the rally organisation.
All day though
the Junior drivers were aware of an event that had
occurred during Thursday night, when the Dani Sordo's
Citroen C2s engine had suffered serious damage, which
forced the Citroen mechanics to swap the power unit and
thus putting Sordo at the risk being penalised, a
decision from the stewards only coming late last night.
Dani Sordo was handed a 60 seconds penalty, which sees
him slide off the top position and down to third: Wilks
becomes the leader, with Mirco Baldacci positioned
strongly in second place at only 32 although the
Sanmarinese driver could rightly claim he had been
damaged by the notional time, as he was matching Wilks
total time exactly after previous SS5 while Dani Sordo
was now in a calm third place at 44 adrift. The rest of
the Junior crews were driving the stages at quite simply
another pace, with Kosti Katajamaki next up in fourth,
at 1186. The second Fiat factory driver, Luca
Cecchettini, incurred more bad luck, a delay of 14191
on the very first stage saw his retirement from the leg.
The Tuscan driver was back out in the rally again though
this morning, thanks to the Superally rule, although he
was admitted with a total gap in the Junior provisional
scoreboard of 39, and holding onto the final position
of the JWRC crews in the Spanish round.
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Fiat have drafted in
Paolo Andreucci to help Giandomenico Basso's ERC
title chances on the Rally Antibes this weekend |
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Mirco Baldacci is busy competing
in the eighth and final round of FIA Junior World
Rally Championship the Rally Catalunya-Costa Daurada,
being held in Spain this weekend |
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However, while all this cut and thrust action is taking
place in Spain, there is another epilogue that is
running for the Fiat Squadra Corse team his weekend: the
ninth round of the European Rally Championship, Rally
Antibes Cote dAzur, which is seeing the Italian team,
with all the forces in can muster, out on the
battlefield.
In order to try
to reduce the chances of the provisional European
Championship 2005 leader Renato Travaglia, Fiat Squadra
Corse, through his racing partner the Procar team, lined
up on the traditional French event with four competitive
cars this weekend in order to subtract as many points as
possible from the points leader, and to grab the overall
victory for Giandomenico Basso and his long-standing
co-driver Mitia Dotta. After eight of nine rounds of the
European Championship this year, Basso has 39 points,
while Travaglia has 46 points, 7 more than the Cavaso
del Tomba located driver. This means that the European
title is a matter for the Italians, although everybody
knows that Basso is more worthy of this championship,
because of the Fiat Punto Super1600s sensational
failure in Madeira Rally do Vinho, when the Veneto
driver was strongly dominating the Atlantic round.
Thus Basso
needs to win this last round on the championship over
the weekend and Travaglia not to score any higher than
sixth place finish, or Basso could arrive at the finish
ramp in second place but Travaglia would then have to
retire or not score points. These were the only
permutations open to the Fiat team, and so this is why
their star Italian championship driver Paolo Andreucci
was drafted to take part in this event, and why Fiat
also have given a chance to two French, local, and very
promising youngsters, Yoann Bonato and Eric Codaccioni.
Their Renault counterparts, in order to defend the
Championship lead and offer more options to Renato
Travaglia, who is backed by the Autorel private team,
haven't allowed the Fiat outfit to call the shots, and
have answered the call by drafting in all its top-line
crews, regular ERC driver, and the current 2004 European
Champion Simon Jean-Joseph and his co-driver Jack Boyere, along
with the very experienced Cedric Robert and co-driver
Gerald Bedon, who drove selected events last year in the
World Rally Championship with a Peugeot 307 WRC.
In fact, Robert
showed off all his own pedigree and won five of the six
special stages that made up the first leg of Rally
Antibes, while the last stage was won by Giandomenico
Basso, co-driven as usual by Mitia Dotta, although the
Frenchman has already gained an apparent clear advantage
for today's and tomorrow's upcoming two legs. The
Italian's will is still very strong though, and they are
targeting nothing short of victory in France. The
provisional scoreboard after Friday's leg stands with
Robert firmly holding first position, Basso in second
place at 185, Jean-Joseph third at 244, Andreucci
fourth at 252, and Travaglia fifth at 442. Young
French driver Yoann Bonato and his co-driver Benjamin
Boulloud are currently sixth at 3205, while the final
Procar Fiat Punto Super1600 driver, Eric Codaccioni, and
his co-driver Sabine Derrien, are currently lying in
seventh position, with a gap of 5105 having opened up
to the rally leader.
by Marco
Tenuti
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