Abarth factory star Luca Rossetti went fastest through last night's marathon 40 km Cuori stage by 4.8 seconds from defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) champion Nicolas Vouilloz, to close the gap on rally leader Paolo Andreucci as the title-fighting Italian pair stamp their authority on their home event. The 51st Rallye Sanremo counts for both the IRC and Italian Rally Championship (CIR) but with Abarth's interest in the former now over, all the Scorpion's attention is focused on the Italian championship title and Rossetti needs nothing less than to claw back serious points from his rival on this event as the gap currently stands at eight points with just one more round to be contested after this weekend.

Rossetti was upbeat after shakedown ahead of the start of the rally last night, saying: “The route is really nice and I like it a lot. I feel comfortable in the Punto and we found a good set up.” He is being joined in an extended three car factory line up by his usual CIR team mate, youngster Umberto Scandola, while especially for this rally Abarth has drafted in former Belgian WRC star Francois Duval who can count on previous experience of the Abarth Grande Punto S2000.

Last night saw the rally kick off with a four-stage night time programme that culminated in SS4, a hugely demanding 40 km test against the clock. On SS1 though it was the IRC title challenger Jan Kopecký in the factory Skoda Fabia S2000 who went fastest, 0.1 seconds ahead of the Peugeot Italia-run 207 S2000 of Andreucci while Rossetti went fourth quickest, 2.5 seconds back.

Kopecký's charge though came to a sudden and dramatic end halfway through the 17.5 km long SS2 Fiori stage, as the Czech broke a wheel and damaging the car and his exit left the home talent to shine, with Italian drivers moving up to fill the top three positions as the Skoda driver's IRC title rival, Kris Meeke (Peugeot) slipped to fourth. Andreucci headed the charge in his Peugeot, 3.5 seconds ahead of Rossetti's works Abarth, while the privateer Peugeot of Alessandro Perico moved up to third. IRC points leader Meeke was down to fourth in his Peugeot UK entry and was now just in front of the two Benelux Peugeots of defending champion Nicolas Vouilloz and veteran campaigner Freddy Loix.

Andreucci consolidated his lead on next stage, SS3 Quadri, as the field returned to service prior to the epic 40 km Cuori stage and the former Fiat factory driver pulled out a further 4.6 seconds on second placed Rossetti over the 10 km long test. Behind them Perico hit trouble, dropping more than eight minutes in the stage and promoting championship leader Kris Meeke to third place. In the IRC battle Meeke was now focused on preserving his car and maximising his points score seeing as title challenger Kopecký had crashed out on SS2 – and he survived a scare when he arrived at the end of SS3 with his brakes on fire. Third place would give him a seven-point cushion with a maximum of ten points available at the final round in Scotland – but Nicolas Vouilloz was closing fast in fourth place – just 0.2s behind. With the IRC decided on each driver’s best seven performances from the 11 rounds, Kopecký would not have to drop a score until the end of the year. If Meeke stays in the points in Sanremo and scores in Scotland, however, he will still have to drop one result after scoring in eight rounds. Meanwhile the second factory Abarth of Rossetti's CIR team mate Scandola had crept up into the top-eight and Duval had moved up to fourteenth place.

On the marathon last stage of the day Rossetti went fastest and clawed 6.4 seconds off Andreucci to close the gap at the front to just 1.7 seconds Andreucci and going into today's final five stages the pair are now well clear of the main field. The other two factory Abarths of Scandola and Duval are in eighth and tenth place respectively overnight, the Belgian starting to get to grips with the rally by posting the seventh quickest time. Elsewhere the sole privateer Abarth Grande Punto in the rally, that of Alessio Pisi, dropped out, and the IRC 2WD Cup title hopes of Fiat Punto S1600 driver Manuel Villa took a big knock as the Italian lost a bucket load of time and slipped to the back of the field.

51st Rallye Sanremo - provisional positions at the end of SS4:

1 Andreucci (I) - Peugeot – 58m 13.9s
2 Rossetti (I) - Abarth - +1.7s
3 Vouilloz (F) - Peugeot - +12.3s
4 Meeke (GB) - Peugeot - +22.5s
5 Loix (B) - Peugeot - +23.8s
6 Travaglia (I) – Peugeot - +31.9s
7 Longhi (I) - Skoda - +38.7s
8 Scandola (I) – Abarth - +59.3s