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Giandomenico
Basso collected Abarth's first podium of the season with
third place on the 29th Rally Internacional de Curitiba
yesterday afternoon after a hard-fought rally; team mate Anton
Alén retired after rolling out on the final day.
While Kris Meeke
(Peugeot 207) took a reasonably comfortable victory Nicolas
Vouilloz (Peugeot 207) overhauled Basso on the final
afternoon to leave the Abarth driver to finish third. The
pair had been locked in a tight battle for the runner-up
spot throughout the two days of the rally, with Vouilloz
initially claiming an advantage before Basso passed him on
the final stage of day one on Friday. This meant that the
duo headed into the final leg of the rally yesterday
separated by just 0.3 seconds. When Basso stalled on the
opening stage of the final afternoon, losing about 10
seconds, Vouilloz was able to make his move – which he
defended to the end.
The stunning
Brazilian stages saw a number of retirements and theses
included Basso's Abarth team mate Anton Alén who arrived in
the country exactly 30 years after his father Markku had won
the first ever edition of this rally. The Finn suffered some
suspension damage early on after hitting a rock on SS3 and
lost time, but worse was to follow on the second day of the
event when he went too quickly into a corner and rolled out
of the rally on SS9.
This left the
Peugeot UK driver Kris Meeke to win the all-gravel rally
which is round two of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge
(IRC) series. The Irishman claimed all seven stages on the
opening day of the rally and then controlled his advantage
on the second day to end up with a 26.2 second margin over
Peugeot Belgium’s Vouilloz, who finished second.
Meeke and
Vouilloz set exactly the same time on the final stage of the
rally yesterday, before heading back for the podium ceremony
at the Curitiba circuit, which was immediately followed by
the qualifying session for the opening round of the FIA
World Touring Car Championship. Before the session started,
the winning car of Meeke completed a lap of the Curitiba
race circuit, bringing rallying and racing together in a
unique way.
Behind Meeke, Vouilloz and Basso, Peugeot Belgium’s Freddy
Loix was fourth, and this moves him into the championship
lead by three points. From the beginning, Loix – who
finished second in Monte Carlo – said that his objective was
to claim the lead of the series in Brazil, so he was not
pushing at his hardest. He also had the handicap of running
first on the road throughout the opening day of the rally,
which cost him a lot of time as he swept up loose gravel.
Meeke also had to cope with this handicap during the second
day of the rally, but it was not so bad during the afternoon
when the morning stages were repeated.
Loix now leads the championship on a total of 13 points,
ahead of Kris Meeke, Sebastien Ogier and Giandomenico Basso
– who are all tied for second on 10 points. Nicolas Vouilloz
is third in the standings with eight points.
In fifth place on the Curitiba Rally was Argentinean driver
Alejandro Cancio, who put in an extremely strong performance
at the wheel of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. Cancio was
consistently in the top-five stage times, even setting a
third-fastest stage time at the end of leg one. He beat
local driver Rafael Tulio, who finished sixth overall and
was also the top two-wheel drive runner in his Peugeot 206
S1600. Another Brazilian, Fiat driver Luis Tedesco, was
second in the two-wheel drive category. Rounding off the
points-scorers in Brazil was local man Marcos Tokarski, in
his Peugeot 206.
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