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Giandomenico
Basso survived everything that the treacherous 33rd ELPA
Rally could throw at him and second place gave him maximum
European Championship points and, along with the demise of
his closest rival, it means the Abarth star has turned the
tables and will take a 9 point advantage into the final two
rounds. Basso has been mixing a challenge for the FIA
European Rally Championship (ERC) title into his IRC
campaign this year and with the ending of his lingering IRC
hopes last time out Abarth quickly switched his focus,
dropping him from the factory team that contested his home
rally in Sanremo this weekend, and sent him to Greece
instead to chase ERC points.
After six tarmac events in a
row, the ERC got back on to gravel this weekend as the
competitors headed for the south-east of Europe for the 33rd
ELPA Rally, held in the region of Itea. With twelve special
stages over Saturday and Sunday adding up to more than 250
timed kilometres, the three title hopefuls would face a
tough test. The fight for the final victory is getting
fiercer by the event with just three rounds remaining to go
none of the possible winners would be missing in Greece.
Points leader Michal Solowow was to run with his usual
Peugeot 207 S2000, while Basso, instead of running with the
private D'Ambra team which has prepared his car on the
rounds of the ERC that he has contested that haven't clashed
with his IRC campaign, would be out in a full factory-run
car, underlining the seriousness with which Abarth are
taking now his title at the title. The third driver still in
with a chance of pulling off the championship, Corrado
Fontana, the ERC-classification winner of previous round
held in Spain, decided to ditch his usual French S2000
machine and instead gamble on the toughness of a Mitsubishi
Evo IX.
Basso was the
rally leader after the six stages that comprised Saturday's
opening day of action but he was helped by misfortune to
Solowow, who along with co-driver Maciek Baran, set the
fastest time on three of the special stages. Heavy rain
during the second loop as well as fog made the route very
difficult for all of the competitors and first place overall
changed six times before Solowow had a spin that cost him
almost two-and-a-half minutes.
"It was a
strange day because the times in special stages were
different," said Basso as he pulled into overnight parc
ferme. "We started with completely different choice of tyres
from Solowow and in the two last stages of the first loop we
lost time because it was very slippery. At the second loop,
I think we made again different choice. We used soft
compound. The first stage was completely dry. When we
finished the stage we changed the front tyres because they
were damaged, but the rears were also "finished" so we
didn't have the balance of the car." The Italian Abarth
driver also complained about dust in the car early on in the
day.
"Ι spun and we
didn't have the reverse gear," commented his arch-rival
for the title, Solowow, at the end
of Saturday's action. "I was disappointed of course, but it
can happen. The stages were similar to the ones of Wales
Rally. Tomorrow we will fight," he added.
The third driver
still in contention for the European title, Fontana, was
reasonably satisfied with his opening day's work. "It is important
that we finished the leg without mistakes. We had two
punctures and we were too lucky because they were the rear
ones. It was very difficult due to the heavy rain. The road
was slippery and it was very easy to make mistakes. Tomorrow
we have to continue on this performance. I think it will be
sunny. I prefer to drive in sunny conditions," added the
Italian.
Day two started
with Basso able to sit back on his time cushion. Solowow
chipped 3.4 seconds off the Abarth driver on the first stage
of the day (SS7) but the gap remained at 1:50. However the
treacherous rough gravel of the ELPA Rally, which
incorporates car-breaking tests used by the legendary
Acropolis Rally, saw Basso fall foul to a puncture on the
next stage (SS8) and he lost more than a minute and three
quarters to Solowow and with four stages still to go he had
just 8.4 seconds in hand over the Pole, the pendulum had
swung the other way, and the fight was back on. Basso
responded to the threat with the fastest time on the next
test (SS9) but the challenge soon evaporated as Solowow
retired with a broken gearbox on the same stage.
As the cars
headed into service and with just three stages to go, a
quarter of the rally total, Basso had just to plod to the
finish as he now had almost nine minutes in hand over
Fontana who was his only rival left in the rally. "We are
sorry for Solowow but it's good for us," said Basso as he
prepared for the final three stages. "Now we have to
concentrate to the championship and not the race. We had a
puncture and lost almost two minutes. It is difficult to
reach Papadimitriou but it’s not important for us, the ERC
is." The final three stages proved to be a formality and
while Ionannis
Papadimitriou
(Mitsubishi Evo IX) ran out the overall winner, Basso was a
very comfortable second and collecting a full points haul as
he finished almost 11 minutes ahead of Fontana.
It all means
that the ERC championship tables have been firmly turned
again, and with a maximum score of 16 points compared to
just two this weekend for Solowow, Basso has elbowed his way
past his rival and back to the top of the championship
leaderboard. With 88 points chalked up now compared to
Solowow's 79, it means the Abarth driver has a 9 point
cushion with just two rounds remaining. Second place for
Fontana gives the Italian 11 points for his weekend's works
and he closes to with 3 points of the Pole and still remains
in contention for the crown as the ERC offers a maximum of
16 points per round and has for this year abandoned the drop
score rule.
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