Fourth place on the Ypres Westhoek Rally for factory Abarth & Co. driver Andrea Navarra cemented his advantage at the top of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) drivers' standings; and with three top-four points finishes from the three rounds held so far this year it clearly demonstrated the reliability of the Grande Punto Abarth S2000. Especially so as the Ypres Westhoek Rally was held over the last few days in very difficult and continually changing weather conditions and the event saw a high attrition rate amongst the crews with many favourites falling by the wayside.

Navarra finished fourth despite having lost over a minute after suffering a puncture on the opening day, a problem that affected his rally strategy, but the Italian was still delighted to extend his IRC series lead; while the second factory Abarth car driven by Umberto Scandola was two places further back. It was a pleasing result for the Italian youngster who on this same rally last year dramatically crashed out of the event and into a pond while lying in second place.

The man of the rally though was Peugeot 207 S2000 pilot Luca Rossetti; and just like the winner last year, Giandomenico Basso, he is also from Italy. It is clear that the Italians now know how to conquer the Belgian roads and the lesson that they taught the locals and the wet, dirty asphalt stages will not be quickly forgotten. Last time a driver won Ypres on his first drive there, he carried the name of one Henri Toivonen and for this victory has to go all the way back to 1984 when the famous Finn drove his Porsche 911 to victory in Ypres.

The 31 year old Rossetti though managed to keep his calm and it were his opponents who gave way under pressure: "On Friday, I really set off very fast, as fast as in the Italian Championship where I know all the dangerous spots. I quickly figured out I was not going to make the finish at that pace and decided to hold my fire and wait. This second day showed I made the right decision and I must say I am winning here because I really felt very well with my car."

Spaniard Garcia Ojeda had to pull out all the stops in order to climb onto the podium in second spot, and make it a Peugeot 1-2 finish. He really set a blistering time in the closing Heuvelland stage, and although Belgian Larry Cols was 0.8 second faster, Ojeda stayed a fractional 0.6 seconds ahead of the local hero in the final rankings. Cols meanwhile had a difficult weekend: on Friday his engine kept misfiring and on Saturday he had to do without the anti-lag system; but when his Mitsubishi went well, he rewarded the enthusiastic locals with a fantastic run up the leaderboard, ending up on the podium just as he hoped.

Navarra came home in fourth place. It was a mildly disappointing finish for the Abarth star and IRC points leader especially as he had led the event for the opening three stages on Friday. "I'm very surprised to be in front of this rally," said Navarra during leg one, "after the opening stage I expected to lose a lot of time as it was so difficult to find grip. I can only assume that conditions were even worse for the people behind me. But I'm happy with the way we were driving, which was quite neat and clean, and I'm also happy with our tyre choice of cut slicks. The surfaces are generally quite dry, but slippery." However the Abarth driver couldn't resist the intense pressure put on him by the former WRC star Freddy Loix driving the new Super2000 category VW Polo S2000. Loix drew level with Navarra after the fourth stage, but on SS5 the Italian was the caught out by cutting a corner a bit too optimistically, and the resulting puncture cost him 1 minute 4.5 seconds.

From then on Navarra was on the back foot, although he managed to keep fifth place finishing Bernd Casier at bay up to the chequered flag. Fiat Motorsports boss Claudio Berro was satisfied with the result: "it was an exceptionally fought rally, rendered difficult by the heavy rain water over the two days. Pieter Tsjoen had to retire when he was in the race for a place on the podium after ruining the front suspension, and Andrea Navarre has been penalised for his puncture. It remains however positive, inasmuch as the placing allows Navarre to increase the advantage in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
 

Finishing just behind Navarra, Casier only made one mistake over the weekend, and unfortunately for him it came just as he led eventual winner Rossetti by just over 15 seconds. In sixth place was the second factory-entered Grande Punto Abarth of Umberto Scandola who finished ahead of Urmo Aava (Suzuki Swift Super1600) and another Belgian Patrick Snijers, who surprisingly never managed to play a real role of significance.

There were a string of retirements, with Loix's departure disappointing the large home crowd. A puncture cost him a lot of time on Friday, but he still fought back to tenth position overnight although he would lose this slot on Saturday morning as the results of SS6 were subsequently cancelled. The VW Polo S2000 driver again set off like a rocket but on SS10, he had to retire completely as his engine gave up. A few hours later, another Belgian favourite, Pieter Tsjoen, parked his Abarth Punto S2000 on the side of the road too. However it had been an excellent rally up to that point for the Abarth pilot and he had led the event on Friday, taking the lead just before driving into the leg's last service point: "I again chose to be careful by running intermediates whereas Navarra went out on slicks," said Tsjoen as he grappled for the overall lead: "I don't know whether it had to do anything with his puncture, but we came through at least. I must admit that I again scared myself seriously in Langemark." Meanwhile, another provisional Ypres Rally leader, Nicolas Vouilloz of France in the Peugeot 207 S2000, had tried to redefine the laws of physics in Krombeke. He lost his bet and ended up in the scenery. His departure from the event helped ease pressure on Navarra in the IRC points standings as he was second in the standings coming into this round.

The Ypres Westhoek Rally also counted towards the 2007 FIA European Rally Championship and three Abarth-mounted pilots were chasing points in this series with mixed success: Volkan Isik in the Fiat Motorsports Turkey-entry hit problems immediately on SS1 and was out of the event at the end of the next stage, Italian Corrado Fontana rolled out dramatically on a fast left hander on SS3, while Pole Michal Solowow survived the treacherous rally to bring his S2000 machine home to finish 20th overall.

After three rounds of the 2007 IRC Andrea Navarra has amassed 23 points. The Abarth pilot took a maximum 10 points score on the opening round, the Safari Rally, which he followed up by grabbing 8 points in Turkey, and then 5 more in Belgium this weekend. He is the only driver to have scored on all three rounds. More consistency comes from Peugeot's Ojeda who moves up to second place in the table with 14 points thanks to his third place in Turkey and second place in Belgium. Third come Vouilloz and Rossetti who have ten points apiece courtesy of their wins in Turkey and Ypres respectively. Of the other Abarth drivers, Anton Alen (5 points) is 8th, while Scandola and Isik (both on 3 points) are equal 13th.

The fourth round of the 2007 IRC will be the Rally of St. Petersburg on 11-12 July, where Navarra will be lining up in his Grande Punto Abarth S2000 with the aim of consolidating his overall points advantage on this eagerly-awaited, Russian-based welcome new addition to the international rally calendar.