The two factory Abarth Grande Puntos of Giandomenico Basso and Luca Rossetti go into today's second and final leg, comprising of seven stages, of the 34th Rally 1000 Miglia in second and third positions overall with everything to play for after a tough opening day when changing weather conditions were the key factor.

After winning Thursday evening's rally-opening super special stage, Basso led the 101 crews into the six stage first leg yesterday morning but immediately dropped 12.4 seconds to arch-rival Paolo Andreucci, in the official Peugeot Italia-entered 207 S2000, on the first stage of the morning (the 10.54 km long SS2 Colle San Zeno) and slipped to second place overall as a result, a position he would hold all day although Basso close the gap to just 4.7 seconds to the Peugeot driver by the end of the first leg last night.

On the day's six stages Basso set three fastest times, one second, one third and one fourth. "The situation is positive," said Basso, "the choice of tyres has been good enough despite the bad conditions. It was easy to be wrong, especially before special stages."

As well as being the first round of the 2010 Italian Rally Championship (CIR), the 34th Rally 1000 Miglia is the opening round of the 2010 FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) and Basso, the reigning European champion, also picked up the day's maximum available ERC points - 3 - as Andreucci isn't registered for this series.

Behind Basso in third place lies team mate Luca Rossetti in the second of the newly Petronas-sponsored Abarth Grande Puntos which are being run by Trico Motor Sport this year; he was 39.9 seconds off the rally leader as the surviving cars went into overnight parc ferme last night but after a hard-fought first day the Italian, who suffered from tyre choices on a very difficult day to make the correct calls, had more than a minute's cushion over Renato Travaglia (Peugeot 207 S2000) in fourth place. Rossetti had hauled himself up to third place on the first stage of the day, SS2, after starting from thirteenth due to his time on the previous nights super special stage, and he continued to hold third spot all day, posting two fastest, two third fastest and two fourth fastest times over the demanding six-stage opening day.

This also meant that the Abarth factory drivers claimed five of the six fastest times of the day with Andreucci taking the other. "A good day," said Rossetti, "We have won two special stages, so this makes us optimistic. Obviously the choice of tyres has favoured us in some cases and has not favoured us in others. We are now waiting the forecast of tomorrow. Meanwhile we have gained lots of important notes."

Behind Travaglia in fifth place is the only surviving private Abarth Grande Punto private entry in the rally, the Maverik-run machine of Luca Cantamessa. He posted the sixth fastest time on SS2 to climb to sixth place overall, moving up one more place to fifth on SS3. He hovered between fifth and sixth for the rest of the leg, eventually closing the day in fifth place, 2:33.7 behind the rally leader.

The other privately-entered Abarth Grande Punto in the bumper entry was the Island Motorsport car of 52 year-old Gianfranco Cunico, one of Italy's most famous rally stars who is returning to the sport in which he has thrilled fans for decades after a four year absence. He kicked off the event well with sixth fastest time on the super special stage, however, Cunico slipped down to thirteen on the first stage of the day but had worked his way up to eighth place as his times continued to improve (seventh fastest on SS5 and sixth fastest on SS6) in his first CIR event in the car before he crashed out on the last stage of the day (SS7).

After Cantamessa, in sixth place this morning, is Elwis Chentre in a Peugeot 207 S2000, and the French Super 2000 machines fill out the rest of the top ten in the hands of Rudy Michelini, Luca Betti, Alex Perico and Davide Di Benedetto. One big name to fall by the wayside yesterday was Piero Longhi (Peugeot 207 S2000) while Cavallini, Fontana, Tosini (the joint leader with Basso after SSS1) and the Czech star Kopecky were all slowed down by problems. Elsewhere Andrea Perego is leading the Production Class with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo while there was bad luck for the Polish F1 driver Robert Kubica who has suffered gearbox problems. In Junior Class, Stefano Albertini (Renault Clio R3) is leading the field, while misfortune hit local star Andrea Dallavilla (also driving Clio R3), he lost 13 minutes in the service park with clutch and gearbox problems.