After a long and difficult IRC season Abarth has bounced back in superb style on this weekend's Rally Principe de Asturias with Giandomenico Basso racing to a 12-second victory over his closest Peugeot rival this afternoon.

Once more, the action went down to the very final stage on the latest round of the IRC, the Principe de Asturias Rally in Spain. Although the all-asphalt event was brand new to the series this year, it became one of the closest-fought contests in the IRC’s history. In the end, Giandomenico Basso won the rally by just over 12 seconds in his Abarth Grande Punto.

Basso and Peugeot Belgium’s Nicolas Vouilloz ended the long opening day – characterised by extremely variable weather – tied on time in the lead. During the second day though, Basso extended his lead by pushing extremely hard in the morning.

Vouilloz fought back on the final loop of the stages, reducing the gap to less than seconds heading into the final test. But once again the two rivals set exactly the same time, and Basso duly claimed Abarth’s first win since he triumphed at the Madeira Rally in August last year. Nonetheless, second place in Spain has extended Vouilloz’s championship lead usefully – particularly in the absence of IRC series frontrunner Luca Rossetti, who was contesting a clashing Italian Championship round.

Freddy Loix, Vouilloz’s team mate, was third despite suffering power steering problems on the second stage of the day. The Belgian slid off the road but was still able to ensure his place on the final podium. A masterful tyre choice on Friday evening – when the previously wet conditions started to dry out – had helped the Belgian to within 25 seconds of the leading duo, but the problem this morning denied Loix the chance to claim a second consecutive victory after winning the last round in the Czech Republic.

Local man (and 2002 Junior World Rally Champion) Dani Sola was set for fourth place, but went off the road on the second stage of the day in his Abarth. This left the way clear for his countryman and reigning IRC champion Enrique Garcia Ojeda to claim the place in his Peugeot Spain 207 S2000. He finished ahead of the reigning Spanish Champion Miguel Fuster, in an Abarth entered by Fiat Spain.

Local man Miguel Arias has become the latest IRC 2WD Cup winner, thanks to a faultless drive in his Peugeot 206 XS. Arias led the category from SS4 onwards, eventually finishing more than a minute ahead of the similar car of Alberto Monarri.

Basso said: “After the opening day of the rally when I finished with the same time as Nicolas, I knew it was going to be a big fight today. Luckily we had a very good day: I pushed hard in the morning and took quite a few more risks than we had on Friday, when it was wetter. On the first stage of the final loop we had a spin, but luckily we did not lose too much time. Right up to the end it was a very intense fight with Nicolas, so we had to be quite careful on the last couple of stages. This win has been a long time coming and now I aim to do it again in Sanremo, which is one of my favourite rallies.”