Following the first four stages of the Sanremo Rally, Peugeot Italy driver (and Rally Madeira winner) Luca Rossetti holds a 12-second lead over the Abarth of his countryman Giandomenico Basso. Rossetti started the final stage – which was 44 kilometres long – with an advantage of two seconds over Mitsubishi’s Paolo Andreucci. Although Rossetti dropped a bit of time on the final stage, Andreucci lost yet more time with his car not proving quite as effective as it had been on wet roads over the first loop of stages. As a result, last year’s Sanremo Rally winner dropped to third.

Basso felt perfectly at home on the twisty mountain roads, populated by thousands of spectators despite the late hour. He won the stage convincingly, putting himself firmly into contention for overall victory. Peugeot Spain driver Nicolas Vouilloz was fourth overall at the overnight halt, having competed for the first time on roads that he knows a little bit through his mountain-biking days. The Frenchman admitted to a couple of big scares when the car got slightly sideways on the slippery surfaces. Although the weather remained dry, there were some damp patches under the trees and the braking areas were made tricky by dead leaves and chestnut shells.

Renato Travaglia finished fifth overnight, despite a power steering failure on his Punto at the very end of the stage, just in front of returning hero Gilles Panizzi. The legendary Frenchman, a three-time Sanremo winner, struggled slightly to adapt himself to his Peugeot and the conditions after more than a year away from competition, but he concluded that he had little to complain about after the opening four stages.
 

Another driver making a comeback was Abarth’s Umberto Scandola, whose last IRC drive was on the Ypres Rally in June. A fine effort saw him come home a trouble-free seventh, ahead of the similar Punto of Freddy Loix, which rounded out the points-scoring places. There was disappointment for Dani Sola, giving the new Honda Civic Type R R3 its debut. The Spaniard was forced into retirement with a mechanical problem during the long SS4. A fillip for Abarth in its chase with its French rival for IRC manufacturers' points occurred when Peugeot 207 S2000 driver Brice Tirabassi also retired after going partially off the road. His car was then struck heavily by another Peugeot, driven by Bruno Magalhães from Portugal.

The frenetic Leg 1 action continues in Sanremo today with SS5, the second running of the 12.92 km long 'Rosa' stage before another loop takes place through the 10.92 km 'Minosa' test. The first leg will wrap up this afternoon having covered 108.58 km across 6 competitively timed special stages out of a total covered distance of 213.61 km. Four more special stages, totalling 108.90 km, comprise Leg 2 on Saturday, with the rally finishing late in the afternoon.