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Peugeot driver
Luca Rossetti has taken his second IRC victory this year out
of two participations, after taking the lead on SS4 – the
longest of the rally at 44 kilometres – and maintaining it
to the end. His biggest
rival was Abarth’s Giandomenico Basso, the Rally Madeira
winner, but Basso also had the Italian Championship title to
think about. By finishing second in Sanremo, the Abarth
driver has guaranteed himself a second Italian
title.
Another big winner was Peugeot Spain’s Nicolas Vouilloz,
whose third place on his first visit to the Sanremo Rally
has meant that he has graduated to joint second place in the
drivers’ standings, seven points behind his team mate
Enrique Garcia Ojeda. The Spaniard initially struggled to
adapt himself to Sanremo’s changeable conditions, but his
sixth-place finish was enough to increase his lead of the
driver’s standings.
Three-time Sanremo winner Gilles Panizzi would have finished
fourth, but he encountered a throttle butterfly problem on
the penultimate stage that earned him a 50-second road
penalty and dropped him down the order to seventh.
This meant that Abarth’s young protégé Umberto Scandola
finished a creditable fourth, having set a fastest stage
time on Friday. Paolo Andreucci - who finished fifth in a
Group N Mitsubishi - led the rally during the opening three
special stages, but dropped back when conditions dried out.
Abarth’s Andrea Navarra started his home event second in the
IRC standings but never had full confidence, and also
dropped time with a puncture, relegating himself to eighth
overall. He now shares second place in the overall rankings
with Vouilloz, whole Peugeot has extended its lead of the
manufacturers’ series.
Despite the complexity of the rally there were relatively
few retirements. Renato Travaglia took a wheel off on SS6,
while Dani Sola’s all-new Honda Civic Type R R3 was forced
to stop on Friday as a result of a stone in the alternator.
He re-started the event under the super rally system, to
join his team mate Luca Betti at the finish. Rossetti said:
“It’s been a fantastic rally for me where I had a lot of
confidence even when things were not particularly well
suited to us.
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