Luca Rossetti agonisingly missed out on winning the 22nd Rally di San Crispino, the sixth round of the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) on the very last stage, at the weekend, after he hit a rock on the racing line which caused a puncture and pushed the Abarth factory driver down to third place.

At the time Rossetti was seemingly on course to win the gravel-surface rally, having posted three consecutive fastest stage times as he wrested command of the hard-fought rally from his Peugeot and Skoda Super 2000-mounted rivals, but instead his misfortune left him to finish in third place, 31.6 seconds behind the winner Piero Longhi (Skoda Fabia S2000) and 22.2 seconds adrift of his key title rival Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot 207 S2000).

"In the very last stage, on the racing line at the exit of a fast corner, there was a big rock which was impossible to avoid, as the on-board camera shows," Rossetti explained. "The puncture was inevitable, as was the consequent time lost [more than one minute] but, above all, the team was denied a victory they fully deserved." Rossetti had taken the lead after giving it all he had in the longest most-challenging special stage of the rally, in which he moved up in front of both Andreucci and Longhi.

In contrast, his Abarth factory team mate, youngster Umberto Scandola, with co-driver Guido D’Amore alongside, were forced into retirement by an electrical failure during the first special stage. Also out on the first stage of the day were two quick privateer Grand Punto Abarth S2000s, driven by Emanuele Dati and Marco Signor, that could have brought useful CIR championship points for Abarth if they had finished, so with two Peugeots finishing in the top four, it meant the French brand collected the bigger manufacturers points haul.

However for Rossetti third place meant he only lost two points in the standings to his closest rival for the crown, Paolo Andreucci, who has now moved into the joint lead of the championship with Renato Travaglia, who finished fourth on the 22nd Rally di San Crispino. Travaglia still leads the standings after six rounds due to having contested all the rallies held so far, whereas with the factory teams boycotting the opening two rounds, Andreucci and Rossetti have ever since been creeping up the provisional points leader, who has driven no less than four different cars in the six rounds held so far this year, but who will soon be hit by having to drop scores.

Rossetti has a four point deficit to the top of the points leaderboard as is now on 32 championship points compared to 36 for both Travaglia and Andreucci. The next round of the 2009 Italian Rally Championship will be the 45th Rally del Friuli which is scheduled for August 28-30 in Udine.

Italian Rally Championship - 22nd Rally di San Crispino, Final Classification: 1. Longhi/Imerito (Skoda Fabia S2000) 1 hour 54min30.0s; 2. Andreucci/Andreussi (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 9.6s; 3. Rossetti/Chiarcossi (Grande Punto Abarth S2000) + 31.8s; 4. Travaglia/Granai (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 36.0s; 5. Ceccoli/Biondi (Mitsubishi Lancer) + 2min32.6s; 6. Campedelli/Fappani (Mitsubishi Lancer) + 3min33.5s.