After just four rounds of
the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) Luca Rossetti's
hopes of winning the title for Abarth have all but
evaporated as on the weekend's 95th Targa Florio
retirement with engine problem at the end of the first
leg means he now trails points classification leader
Paolo Andreucci by 49 points, which is almost equivalent
to the margin of two straight wins.
Former factory Fiat pilot Andreucci, who was in fact
responsible for developing the Abarth Grande Punto S2000
machine, has been in imperious form this year as he
defends a title that the Peugeot pilot has made his own.
Considered by many as the best all round driver in a
championship that is regarded as possibly the toughest
national contest in the world, yesterday in Palermo
after Rossetti had dropped out Andreucci was able to
cruise to the line to make it four wins out of the four
events held so far this year and the Italian has been
rarely troubled on his way to collecting a maximum
available haul of 100 points, although best scores will
come into play later in the year.
The 95th edition of the Targa Florio was split into
twelve stages sspread over two legs: seven stages
comprised the first leg (1 SSS on Thursday and 6 on
Friday) while the final leg saw a further five stages
being contested yesterday. Another former Abarth factory
pilot, Umberto Scandola, now driving a Ford Fiesta
S2000, took the initial rally lead on Thursday's 1.65 km
long super special stage at Palermo Airport where
surface gravel meant the crews took a cautious approach.
However Scandola was
immediately swept aside as soon as the rally proper got
underway with SS2 on Friday morning as Rossetti laid his
marker down, going 11.2 seconds faster than Scandola,
but more importantly setting the fastest time of the
test, 1.9 seconds quicker than Andreucci. The Abarth
driver thus rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with
a slender 2.7 second margin. Rossetti won four out of
the first five stages of the day to arrive at the final
test with an 11.4 second lead over Andreucci while
Scandola was in third place, 43 seconds back.
However on the last
stage of the day, the 13.60 km third running of "SS
Targa", it all went wrong for Rossetti as engine
problems ground the Trico-run Abarth Grande Punto to a
halt leaving the way clear for Andreucci to win the
stage and lead the crews into parc ferme; it would be a
lead that he wouldn't relinquish.
More successful however has been Rossetti's dual
campaign this year to defend his European Rally
Championship crown although this weekend saw an ERC-CIR
date clash. After two maximum scores collected on the
first two rounds of the season, Rossetti elected to sit
out this weekend's third round, the Bosphorus Rally, as
he focused on the CIR. "Rox" was yesterday handed a
bonus when one key ERC title rivals, former double ERC
winner Renato Travaglia (Skoda Fabia S2000) retired for
the second event in this series on the trot although his
closest challenger, Luca Betti (Peugeot 207 S2000) has
capitalised on the Abarth driver's absence and currently
lies in second place overall with just one stage (SS16)
remaining this afternoon. Also making hay after
Rossetti's no show is Polish driver Maciej Oleksowicz
who is currently in third place. Czech ERC regular
Antonνn Tlusťαk is driving a privately entered Abarth
Grande Punto on the Bosphorus Rally and lies in a solid
seventh place after 15 stages.
Italian Rally
Championship Rd 4, 95th Targa Florio - Results
1. Andreucci
Andreussi (Peugeot 207 S2000) in 1.37479; 2. Scandola
DAmore (Ford Fiesta S2000) + 378; 3. Runfola Lo
Neri (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 488; 4. Cunico Pollet
(Peugeot 207 S2000) + 562; 5. Chentre Canov (Peugeot
207 S2000) a 1109; 6. Perico Carrara (Peugeot 207
S2000) a 1297; 7. Riolo Marin (Peugeot 207 S2000) +
1369; 8. Stagno Palazzolo (Peugeot 207 S2000) +
3247; 9. Nucita Cotone (Renault New Clio R3) +
3325; 10. Pisi Cadore (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 3357.
