After the seven asphalt stages that made up the first leg of the 35th Croatia Delta Rally, Grande Punto Abarth S2000 driver Corrado Fontana holds a very slender 13.1 second advantage at the front of the field going into today's final leg.

After the seven asphalt stages that made up the first leg of the 35th Croatia Delta Rally, the third round of the FIA European Rally Championship, Grande Punto Abarth driver Corrado Fontana holds a very slender 13.1 second advantage at the front of the field going into today’s final leg.

The Croatia Delta Rally is the oldest, most difficult and most popular car racing event in the Republic of Croatia. The event also has the reputation as being one of the best-organised events in this part of Europe. The event was held for the time in 1974 by the “INA” auto-moto club of Zagreb and was then called the “INA-delta TLX Rally”. The Rally struggled to obtain European Championship status for more than 15 years. Finally in 1991 FIA granted the rally ‘coefficient 2’ status, and in 1992 the 19th European Delta rally championship took place. This year’s 35th edition is the third round of the European series.

The lead of the rally see-sawed all day between Fontana and Polish crew Michał Sołowow, Maciej Baran who have recently swapped their Grande Punto Abarth for a Peugeot 207 S2000. The opening day ended with the ninth, super special, stage (the first two stages scheduled for Thursday were cancelled) at Bundek last night, wrapping up the day in front of about 5000 spectators.  In front of the passionate fans, Fontana, driving an HF Grifone-prepared car, raced through the stage in 5 minutes 20 seconds, an average speed of 86.29 km per hour, to open his advantage at the front to 13.1 seconds. As in previous years, Bundek turned out to be the most popular special stage, especially the area in Većeslav Holjevac avenue – the turn at the INA building – where drivers have to show their specialist driving skills.

Second place in the overall rankings overnight belonged to the experienced Sołowow in the Cersanit Rally Team Peugeot 207 S2000. Turks Volkan Işık and Kaan Özşenler, in their Fiat Motorsports Turkey Grande Punto Abarth S2000, are in third place, 1 minute and 1 second off the lead, while the first Croatian crew, three-time Delta Rally winners Juraj Šebalj and Toni Klinc, occupy fourth place overall. “We are satisfied with the current result but we believe we will do better tomorrow. We are ready for the final day, tomorrow is all or nothing,” Šebalj said at the press conference held after the second day of the rally.

At the press conference, clerk of the course Slaven Dedić and Josip Florian, assistant clerk of the course, also expressed their satisfaction with the second day of the rally. “So far I’m satisfied with the rally. It was thrilling and unpredictable until the end and hopefully it will remain the same tomorrow.”

The final six timed stages that comprise the second leg of the Croatia Delta Rally will take place today, comprising of two loops of the special stages Laz, Samci and Sljeme. The rally ends at 5pm with the finish ceremony in the Ban Jelačić square.