Abarth's Umberto Scandola will lead the Rally du Valais into this morning's stages following Thursday's opening three tests, team mate Giandomenico Basso was the early leader but a puncture has left him 13.7 seconds adrift.

The Rallye du Valais got underway yesterday in the Swiss town of Martigny with three stages; a taster for the main action that begins at 09:00 this morning. A trio of title hopefuls come into the event with the possibility of lifting the Intercontinental Rally Challenge crown: Nicolas Vouilloz, the current series leader, Giandomenico Basso, and Luca Rossetti.

Peugeot Belgium driver Vouilloz has the strongest chance of winning, but consequently he is under the most pressure. A win for Vouilloz would make him champion, whatever anybody else does. Equally, if Basso wins or finishes second with his factory Abarth Grande Punto (assuming that Vouilloz does not win) he would be able to take the title fight to the final IRC round in China.

Basso, the winner of the last two IRC rallies in Spain and Sanremo, served notice of his intention by claiming the first stage that was run yesterday, Crans-Montana. He remained in contention during the second stage, but suffered a setback during the third and last stage, when he had a puncture to the front-right tyre. Luckily for the Italian it was in the final kilometre of the stage and he dropped just 13 seconds to end up in sixth place overall overnight.

Freddy Loix (Peugeot Belgium) took over the lead after SS2, but he dropped to second overnight as it is Umberto Scandola (Abarth) who leads going into today's stages. The young Italian was also the early leader of the Sanremo Rally last month, and he put in a faultless performance in Switzerland to claim a slim advantage of just 1.1 seconds at the first overnight halt. By winning two of the three stages held so far, Scandola has demonstrated an impressive turn of speed despite his relative inexperience.

Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot Poland) is fourth, ahead of Peugeot Italy’s Luca Rossetti. The newly-crowned European Champion thought that he had chosen tyres that were too hard for the opening loop of stages and he consequently lost time. Behind Basso is local man Gregoire Hotz in seventh, who set a notable second-fastest stage time on SS3 with his Peugeot 207 S2000. Anton Alén (Abarth) rounds out the points-scoring places by continuing his learning curve on asphalt to claim eighth overnight.

In the IRC 2WD Cup, Alessandro Bettega currently leads and holds 17th place overall. The Italian said that he was not pushing too hard, and now his priority will be just to finish as his title rival Marco Cavigioli failed to make it to the end of Thursday. The Italian is reported to have ripped a wheel off his Fiat Punto Diesel, giving Bettega the chance to win the title here in Switzerland if he finishes first or second in the two-wheel drive category.

So far there have been very few retirements, but local man Herve Van Dach was one of the first to succumb to the demands of this rally, when his Peugeot 207 S2000 stopped on the road section after SS1. The weather conditions on the first three stages yesterday were dry but cold, with just some small patches of moisture. More chilly weather is expected today but for the time being no rain is forecast. However, this morning’s stages could well contain some black ice and grease, giving competitors and extra hazard to deal with.