Giandomenico Basso has claimed his third win in four years on the Rali Vinho Madeira after an amazing rally long duel with Bruno Magalhães which resulted in a winning margin for the Abarth driver after 21 hotly-fought stages of just 3.5 seconds. Popular with the large crowds on the island, Albert Llovera battled all event long in his Grande Punto Abarth and impressively worked his way up the order to finish 21st overall. Reigning IRC 2WD Cup champion Marco Cavigioli, who was chasing ERC points over the weekend, retired with gearbox problems between SS20 and SS21 while holding onto a solid tenth place overall. In the IRC 2WD Cup Manuel Villa scored his second win of the season in his Fiat Punto S1600. The Italian was easily able to contain the threat from his biggest rival in the series, Denis Millet.

Giandomenico Basso shares third place in the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge title race with Freddy Loix, the result of a tense and exciting three days in Madeira, the seventh round of the series. The Abarth team leader's victory puts him just seven points behind championship leader Kris Meeke with four rounds remaining after a thrilling duel with local hero Bruno Magalhães which ended with just 3.5s between them after 21 stages.

"It was fast, nervous and exciting," said a clearly delighted Basso. "The team has been working hard and the car was strong. This event is very special to me, and to make my third win here after losing on the last stage last year is fantastic." The 50th Rali Vinho Madeira was also valid for the FIA European Rally Championship and Basso arrived on the island as the joint points leader, equal with Corrado Fontana and Michal Solowow, thanks to his win on the last round of the seires in Bulgaria. Basso's maximum score (18 points) this weekend means he leaves Madeira with 59 points and has put some daylight between himself and his two main rivals for the ERC title with Solowow now on 51 points and Fontana on 49.

Having won eight of the 12 special stages on Friday, Basso looked to have the event under control and with a replacement gearbox fitted after Friday night's worries he looked strong. Yet Magalhães resolutely pushed the Italian on every stage, and after spinning on SS17, Basso came under increasing pressure as his lead was cut - but had enough in hand to claim the victory. "It was a very close fight, and I am so pleased to do this here in Madeira," said Magalhães. "It is an honour to compete with international drivers on this amazing rally, and I have loved every second."

Basso's win was his third in the last four years on the event during which time he has never finished outside the top-two and it comes on the prestigious occasion of the 50th edition of the Rali Vinho Madeira. The Super 2000 category Abarth Grande Punto now has three wins cemented into the record books on the event (the of these first wins coming when it was known as the Fiat Grande Punto Abarth Rally in 2006) with the island rally proving to be a happy hunting ground for Fiat Group products over the decades. Lancia's immortal Delta (1986-87 and 89-92) rules the roost amongst the Madeiran winners, and has six victories to its legendary name. Two other Lancias are etched into the roll-call of honour: the 037 Rally (1983 and 1985) has won twice and the Stratos (1979) once. The Fiat 131 (1980) and 125 (1972) have both won in Madeira, while Ferrari (1962-63) has claimed two victories, and even Alfa Romeo chalked up a win in 1961.

There was more glory on the island yesterday for the Fiat Group, this time in the IRC 2WD Cup as Manuel Villa scored his second win of the season in his Fiat Punto S1600. Villa was easily able to contain the threat from his biggest rival in the series, Denis Millet's turbocharged Peugeot 207 RC, to take a resounding win and in the process also finish in an impressive 20th place overall. The two had arrived in Madeira tied on points.

Basso's Abarth factory team mate Luca Rossetti crashed out heavily yesterday afternoon after running in a solid mid-top-10 position; the Italian had started to come into his own on day two on the rally and had posted two consecutive fastest stage times just before his accident. Of the other privately-entered Grande Punto Abarths in the rally, the highly regarded local youngster Bernardo Sousa departed the scene very early on during day one with electrical problems, while reigning IRC 2WD Cup champion Marco Cavigioli, who was returning to the IRC for the first time since winning his title but chasing ERC points, retired with gearbox problems between SS20 and SS21 while holding onto a solid tenth place overall. Popular with the large crowds on the island, Albert Llovera battled all event long in his Grande Punto Abarth and impressively worked his way up the order to finish 21st overall.

Coming home third behind Basso and Magalhães yesterday was the defending Portuguese national champion Alex Camacho, who was able to fend off reigning IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz in another tense battle through the final stages. "We started a little slow, though we were trying to go fast," said Vouilloz. "I'm not really happy about the weekend but the car was good today and we were able to drive to the maximum. Fourth place is not what we needed from this event but that was the best we could do."

In contrast Kris Meeke was delighted to come home in fifth place, putting four more points on the board. "This is a very, very special rally," he said. "To come here for the first time and win would be impossible, the top four guys were incredible and to be just over a minute behind Giandomenico after three hours is amazing. The points you win on a bad weekend are the ones that count the most."

Less happy was Freddy Loix, who knows that with four rounds to go every point counts, and that the single point Meeke was able to keep from him in Madeira could prove invaluable. "We hadn't made all our preparations before we came here so Day 1 was spent on the setup – and by the time we got that right everyone had gone!" he said. "We had to keep the pressure on Meeke but he did a great rally and that's another point to him."

Behind Loix came two more Portuguese Peugeots – Miguel Nunes and Corrado Fontana respectively. The all-new Proton Satria Neo of Guy Wilks finished the event in 10th place overall, the team electing to focus on developing the car once it became clear that a points scoring result was not achievable.

Skoda too failed to increase its score in Madeira, despite the presence of Maurin in a Skoda Italia-prepared Fabia S2000. His challenge was thwarted on the road section to SS13 when, having lost his brakes, Maurin was powerless to avoid an accident which forced major repairs to be made overnight and restarting under superrally regulations well outside the points.