Going into last weekend's third round of the 2011 CIR, held on the island of Sardinia, Andreucci had two wins out of two under his belt while Rossetti had been forced to play the bridesmaid in both events. The Abarth Grande Punto S2000 is showing its age in 2011 with little development work carried out in recent years while the Peugeot 207 S2000 continues to push forward as an all round winner. The Italian Super 2000 machine however has never really found gravel to be its favoured surface so the tough challenge of the Rally Costa Smeralda would always be an even more difficult task for Rossetti.

While the highly experienced former Fiat/Abarth pilot Andreucci, regarded by many as the best all round rally driver in competition in Italy today, was able to control proceedings in a warm and sunny Costa Smeralda from the front, Rossetti fought hard to keep the Abarth Grande Punto S2000, which this year is being run by private team Trico Motor Sport, in the picture. The rally kicked off on Friday with four stages, totalling 63.53 km, followed by four more on Saturday, adding up to a further 73.5 km, to decide this year's thirtieth edition.

Rossetti eventually took the chequered flag 35.7 seconds back from Andreucci but more agonisingly he lost more valuable points as he was pipped to second place by just 2.8 seconds by another former factory Abarth pilot, this time youngster Umberto Scandola from Verona who now drives the new Ford Fiesta S2000. The breakneck pace at the front was amplified by the fourth placed driver, Mauro Trentin (Peugeot 207 S2000) who was more than six minutes behind Rossetti at the finish ramp while several fancied runners also dropped out including on stage 4 the fancied Mikkelsen (Skoda Fabia S2000), after setting the fastest time on victory on stage 2, and Andrea Aghini (Peugeot 207 S2000). Another top name to drop out was Piero Longhi (Peugeot 207 S2000) on SS6.

The result means that Andreucci has extended his CIR points classification advantage to 75 points having grabbed the maximum points on offer on all three rounds so far. Rossetti is however still in second place, now on 51 points, meaning he is 24 points adrift of the Peugeot pilot after just three rounds of the season, almost the entire gap of a straight win which nets 25 points. "Certainly in terms of championship we harvested some very useful points," said Rossetti, "even if we hoped for something more in this very nice race." Scandola's second place moves him up to fourth overall, just three points behind Alessandro Perico (Peugeot).

The next round of the Campionato Italiano Rally will take Rossetti and the other competitors to Sicily for the Rally Targa Florio on June 3-4. However before that appointment the Abarth pilot will be in action on the Croatia Rally, the second round of the 2011 European Rally Championship (ERC), at the end of this month, "Rox" seeking to build on the points lead takes into the event from round one as he defends his 2010 ERC crown.

1. Andreucci/Andreussi (Peugeot 207 S2000) in 1 hour 33'13.6; 2. Scandola-D'Amore (Ford Fiesta S2000) + 35.7; 3. Rossetti-Chiarcossi (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) + 38.5; 4. Trentin/De Marco (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 6'46.5; 5. Campedelli/Fappani (Citroen DS3) + 6'50.0; 6. Perico/Carrara (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 6'54.7; 7. Dettori/Corda (Ford Fiesta S2000) + 7'2-3.5; 8. Gianfico/Tolino (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) + 8'08.6; 9. Angrisani/Pollicino (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) + 10'06.9; 10. Tonso/Barone (Ford Fiesta S2000) + 10'35.9.

Italian Rally Championship, Drivers Standings (after 3 of 8 rounds): 1. Andreucci (Peugeot) 75; 2. Rossetti (Abarth) 51; 3. Perico (Peugeot) 33; 4. Scandola (Ford ) 30; 5. Chentre (Peugeot) 25.