Rossetti came to Turkey two years ago as he chased his first ERC title, then at the wheel of a Peugeot 207 S2000, and a scintillating victory greatly helped him towards securing the crown. Last year his Scorpion factory team mate Giandomenico Basso clinched the ERC crown so this year "Rox" is bidding for not only for his second prestigious European title, but now as a factory Abarth driver, he is looking to ensure the championship trophy remains in Turin. Rossetti made a stunning start to this year's championship, picking up a total of 103 points during the first three rounds to open up a commanding 63-point advantage over fellow Italian driver Luca Betti (Peugeot 207 S2000). However the last event (round four) the Ypres Rally clashed with his Italian Rally Championship campaign with Abarth and Rossetti was forced to miss the event. In Ypres Betti picked up 20 points to whittle Rossetti's gap down to 43 points while Polish driver Michal Solowow (Peugeot 207 S2000) started his ERC title bid this year quite late on round three, his home rally, where he finished second to grab 30 points and then he collected a further 26 points for finishing second in the ERC standing in Ypres which means he has moved up the leaderboard and into third place, on 56 points, just 4 points adrift of Betti. Fourth goes to another Italian, Corrado Fontana, who has amassed 50 points from four events and is 6 points behind the Polish driver.

In Turkey Rossetti will be at the wheel of a locally-entered private Abarth Grande Punto S2000 from Team Pegasus owned by Cem Acar. The Super 2000 machine will be run on the event by Factory Speed Turcars whose Team Principal is Aramaci Yusuf. This year the Pegasus outfit has been running the experienced former four times Turkish Rally Champion Serkan Yazici (2000, 2001, 2004 and 2008) in an Abarth Grande Punto S2000 in the national series with technical support from the Abarth factory and ST Racing, thus hopefully providing a strong basis for Rossetti's difficult challenge next weekend as the Grande Punto S2000 has never been really comfortable on gravel and in its twilight years it has fallen behind its French rival as lack of budget at Abarth has seen development and new car build programmes drying up. "I'm really happy with the agreement signed, Turkey is a country I like very much and I have wonderful memories of my victory in 2008, the bonus is that this year I have the chance to race with and for two friends Cem Acar and Yusuf Aramaci," said Rossetti after the announcement was made that he would start the Bosphrous Rally. "I would like particularly to thank them for the opportunity they have given me and I will do my best to do well in the race and defend my leadership in the European Championship."