Factory drivers' Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta handed the new 'Super2000' category compliant Fiat Grande Punto Rally its second consecutive overall FIA European Rally Championship victory on the Fiat Rally in Turkey yesterday as they finally kick-started their 2006 European title bid.

After the huge disappointment of being forced to retire during the opening round of the 2006 FIA ERC, the Rally Mille Miglia in Italy last month, Basso - who was runner up in the series last year - was glad to take ten points away from Turkey, although in truth he faced very little top class international opposition to test the new S2000 car up against. Their closest challenge during the rally came from Volkan Işık and Güray Karacar driving a Fiat Motorsports-entered Punto S1600 who rounded out an excellent weekend for the Turin carmaker by finishing in second place overall and easily winning the Super1600 class, in the process leading out a Fiat 1-2-3 in the popular front wheel drive category.

Turkey’s oldest international motorsport event, 35th Fiat Rally, organized by Turkish Automobile Sports Federation, was to be the second round of the nine events which make up the 2006 FIA ERC this year. Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Belgium, Portuguese, Czech Republic, Greece and France are the other countries where the series is being held. After five years spent located in Izmir, the Fiat Rally, one of the most demanding rounds of the European Rally Championship, was to be based this year in the glorious city of Istanbul after an absence of several years. Having been organised for three years in a row in Bursa, the automotive capital of Turkey, the rally was moved to Izmir in 2001 season.

The Fiat Rally started last Friday from the famous Taksim Square in Istanbul at 19:30 with an opening super-special stage that was won by Basso. The stages were contested in the Şile and Kocaeli areas and for the Rally HQ and Service Park, the new Istanbul Park Circuit was used. One of the best features of the rally was undoubtedly the Service Park located inside Formula One circuit. The huge paddock area of Istanbul Park, which served Formula One teams last August, also held the 'Fiat Super Special Stage'. In total 23 special stages and 802,45 km of all-tarmac stages were to be covered before the finish ceremony would be held yesterday at the Service Park in the Istanbul Park circuit during the late afternoon.
 

Providing the rally's competition to the N.technology team, which was running Giandominico Basso, and the local Fiat Motorsports outfit which had entered several S1600 cars were a string of top Turkish teams including the Subaru Turkish Rally Team, Ford Rallye Sport Turkey, Opel Performance, Renault Sport Turkey, ST Racing, Tok Sport and Delta Sport. Last year's winner was Simon Jean-Joseph in a Renault Clio Super 1600, while Basso in the Fiat Punto S1600 was the second, and Mirco Baldacci in another Punto S1600. Basso was looking to go one better during this year's event.

Basso got off to an excellent start on Saturday, storming the 12-stage first leg, having already starting his bid for victory rolling on the super-special (SS1) where he ran out 8 seconds faster than Volkan Işık's Fiat Punto S1600. It was to be a pattern repeated for most of the opening day with the N.technology factory driver setting fastest times on 9 stages and going second quickest on the remaining three. He rolled the new Grande Punto Rally into overnight parc ferme at the F1 circuit with 52.9 seconds in hand over Isik (the clear Super1600 category leader) and with 1 minute and 53.5 seconds over third placed Ercan Kazaz driving a Subaru Impreza for the Subaru Turkiye Rally Team. Opel Performance’s young crew, Yağız Avcı and Ersan Alkır, were in fourth place. Out of 48 cars which had started the event, ten of them failed to finish leg one although under the 'SupeRally' rules seven of these made it to the restart yesterday morning.

With a comfortable overnight lead in hand, Basso was able to back off during the final nine-stage second leg held yesterday, although he did set three fastest stage time on his way to a victory margin of 2 minutes and 59.4 seconds over Işık, who rounded out an excellent event for Fiat by winning the Super1600 category and finishing in second place overall. Consistency helped Kazaz retain his overnight third place as the top three positions remained unchanged during the final day. The other Turkish Fiat Motorsports entry, Hamdi Ünal and Kaan Özşenler, finished in seventh place overall and third in the Super1600 category, in their Fiat Palio S1600.