Corrado Fontana and Renzo Casazza have raced to victory this weekend on the INA Croatia Delta Rally in their HF Grifone-prepared Grande Punto Abarth S2000, the experienced Italian crew building on the slim overnight cushion they took into the closing day's six stages. Volkan Işık collected the final podium place in Croatia, and the points on offer see the Fiat Motorsports Turkey driver moveing up the championship leaderboard, into fourth place after three rounds.

Corrado Fontana and Renzo Casazza have raced to victory this weekend on the INA Croatia Delta Rally in their HF Grifone-prepared Grande Punto Abarth S2000, the experienced Italian crew building on the slim overnight cushion they took into the closing day’s six stages.

The third round of the FIA European Rally Championship event yesterday saw Fontana and Casazza tacking the rally’s final loop, comprising of two runs through three asphalt stages, Laz, Samci and Sljeme, with a slender 13.1 second lead over Polish Peugeot 207 S2000 crew Michał Sołowow and Maciej Baran, after a frenetic opening leg that saw the two experienced crews trading places at the top of the leaderboard.

The INA Croatia Delta Rally is the biggest and longest-established sporting event in the country, drawing hordes of rally fans to the event. Fiat has one win on the rally (1976) while the immortal Lancia Delta integrale has collected six victories (1989-92 and 1994-95).

After the first loop of three timed special stages (Laz, Samci and Sljeme) yesterday, Fontana was still on top of the standings; however Sołowow had the gap down to 8.9 seconds, while veteran Turkish crew Volkan Işık and Kaan Özşenler in their Fiat Motorsports Turkey Grande Punto Abarth S2000 maintained their overnight third place. “Not so good today,” reported the rally leader.  “We are not fast like yesterday.  We have to change [the] setup and try to be in front [of the] competition.”

Meanwhile Sołowow was starting to experience gearbox issues that would dog his final day.  “Nice weather, nice stages,” reported the Pole. “We are trying to fight and it is not over yet.” The second Grande Punto crew were settling for a solid third place and a big helping of points towards their European title bid: “It is better then yesterday," said Işık. “We are watching the others, not attacking, just watching.”

Fourth place at the final leg’s midpoint was held by Slovenian crew Tomaž Kaučić and Peterat Zorenč Peterat, while the best-placed Croatian crew were Siniša Crnojević and Martina Maretić Maretic (Mitsubishi Evo IX) who were in fifth place in the overall rankings, 3 minutes and 5.2 seconds behind the leading crew. The Bulgarian team Krum Donchev and Stoiko Valchev in a Subaru Impreza STi, who are contesting a full ERC programme this year, were in sixth place, one place ahead of Italians Luca Betti and Maurizio Barone (Mitsubishi Evo IX).

These top seven places on the leaderboard remained unchanged during the day’s second and final loop of the Laz, Samci and Sljeme stages, with Fontana racing to a well-deserved victory, the Italian eventually arriving at the tea time finish line ceremony in the Ban Jelačić square with a comfortable 1 minute 14.7 second cushion over Sołowow.

After three rounds of the 2008 FIA European Rally Championship Luca Rossetti (32 pts) maintains his position at the top of the leaderboard thanks to his back-to-back maximum scores on the opening two events (the Istanbul and Mille Miglia Rallies).  However Fontana (21 pts), who arrived in Croatia with just five points to his name after missing the opening round, has collected a maximum score of 16 points to vault himself up the leaderboard into second place, and close the gap to Rossetti to 11 points. Another Abarth driver, Renato Travaglia (19 points), remains in third place, while Işık (15 pts) is also on the move up the leaderboard, climbing into fourth place.  He is just ahead of the fourth Grande Punto Abarth in the top five, Anton Alén, who has 11 points, collected on the Istanbul Rally, an event that counted for the IRC as well as the ERC.

The next round of the 2008 ERC is the Rally Poland (6-8 June), the second-oldest rally in the world, and the most prestigious motorsport event in the country, which will be celebrating its 65th anniversary this year. This widely-known and highly-regarded European event is to be held on the gravel stages of the Mazurian Lakes District for the fourth year running.